Officials Begin Florida Recount

NASHVILLE--Here in Music City, U.S.A., Elvis lives and so does Vice President Al Gore '69--at least for now.

More than 24 hours after the last polling places closed, the results of the presidential election still remain very much undecided. Gore decidedly won the popular vote, amassing about 192,000 more votes than challenger Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

But the Electoral College vote was more split, with everything hinging on the all-important recount of nearly six million votes in the state of Florida, where the current margin of victory separating the candidates is less than 1,800 votes.

Gore numerically amassed more popular votes in Tuesday's election than any Democratic presidential candidate in history, besting even the high support of President Clinton in 1992 and 1996.

After months of frenetic activity, the Gore campaign spent yesterday quietly watching the historic recount develop. A team of 70 volunteers, including a large contingent of lawyers, was dispatched to the Sunshine State to monitor the recounting.

Nineteen Florida counties reported the first recount results late yesterday afternoon, accounting for 2,909,465 votes for Bush--a gain of 205 votes over previously estimated levels--and 2,907,722 for Gore, gaining him 238 votes. Florida suspended the recount for the night around 6 p.m. last night.

By mid-morning yesterday, the campaign announced that former Secretary of State Warren Christopher would head up the team--joining one of President George H.W. Bush's former secretaries of state, Jim Baker, from the George W. Bush campaign. All involved were quick to downplay the election's mystery factor.

"We're not on the edge of a constitutional crisis," Christopher said at the Loews Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel, where Gore and top aides spent the day studying the election and its ramifications.

Christopher had been summoned by the Gore campaign early yesterday morning from his home in Los Angeles. Arriving mid-morning, he spent the early afternoon being briefed on the situation.

Late yesterday afternoon, Gore finally came out of seclusion to issue a brief statement. He took no questions from the media.

"We now need to resolve this election in a way that is fair and forthright, and in a way that is fully consistent with the Constitution and our laws," Gore said. "Because of what is at stake, this matter must be resolved expeditiously, but deliberately and without any rush to judgment."

Campaign Chair Bill Daley addressed the press conference after the vice president, stressing that the final tally was far from tabulated.

"There's a whole host of information no one knows," he said.

Questions remain about voting "irregularities" in Florida, and how absentee ballots sent from overseas will affect the election. It could take up to 10 days for those ballots to filter in. In 1996, the 2,300 overseas ballots went mainly to the Republican nominee.

Democratic charges of voting problems gained strength over the course of the morning, as uncounted ballot boxes were discovered and charges of voter tampering came to light.

Palm Beach was the focal point of many of yesterday's claims, as charges were aired that confused ballots had led many Gore supporters--potentially hundreds--to unwittingly cast their vote for Pat Buchanan after the ballots in three precincts were misprinted.

Buchanan received over 3,400 votes in Palm Beach County--a fifth of his state total--despite the fact he only received 561 votes in the more populous neighboring Dade County.

In addition, the Justice Department and the Florida attorney general's office launched an investigation into a "safety checkpoint" set-up by four free-lancing state troopers on the way to Woodville Baptist Church, a predominantly minority polling place.

Other voting anomalies which are drawing attention are the allegations that voters were turned away in Dade County, and a judge's decision to designate the Volusia County polling place as a crime scene after a computer disk of voter information was lost.

The Florida secretary of state promised the preliminary recount would be completed by 5 p.m. today--although either campaign can challenge those results in court.

While life in Nashville continued yesterday morning, the election's surprising twist played havoc with schedules, as staffers and volunteers postponed planned vacations and the media rebooked flights to stay and keep covering the campaign.

But yesterday, city workers were busy taking down the stage at the War Memorial Plaza, the site of Gore's planned victory celebration on election night.

Even at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown, the nexus of Gore's election night headquarters, was moving on--the media center was being dismantled in preparation for the annual conference of the Tennessee Psychological Association.

But while the apparatus of election night is being removed, the question of the victor--and the recount--is hardly disappearing.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Democratic National

Committee Chair Joe Andrew said he wanted the recounting to be "respectful and transparent" and pledged any assistance the party could give.

"The Democrats want what each American wants--we want to be confident of the outcome of this election," he said.