Montana Governor Marc Racicot, a Republican ally in Austin to help Bush, said Gore is trying to change ballot-checking rules in south Florida to pad his vote totals. The outcome of the disputed American Presidential election is being decided in a Florida court. Seven supreme court judges are hearing legal arguments about whether votes re-counted by hand can be included in the final total for Florida. It fell to the Chief Justice of Florida to spell out the seriousness of the decision for the Presidency and for the country. Lawyers for Al Gore's campaign argued to the seven judges that not only must the manual re-counts in Florida go ahead, but that any extra votes they find must be included in the final totals.
All political power is inherent in the people.
That means that our citizens are the owners of our government and the role of public officials is to listen to their voices. The Republican lawyers argued emphatically that all the Democrats wanted to do was to hunt for more votes in their own areas. The democrats did not request all 67 counties. The judges, all appointed to their positions by Democrats, grilled both sides hard but gave little indication of how they will rule. A decision is expected soon - a decision that could either put this election to bed or extend it for many days yet.