The unfolding situation seemed to increase the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court, not Congress and not the Florida legislature, may have the final word in determining the next president. Nevertheless, after the Supreme Court ruled Saturday, Republican leaders of the Florida legislature said they would press ahead with their plan to create a separate slate of electors committed to Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush. Republicans say they will push for a Bush slate as an insurance policy. They contend that the Florida Supreme Court, by allowing hand counts, almost certainly arranged for Vice President Al Gore to wind up with a majority of the counted votes.
Republicans control both chambers of the Florida legislature.
The Florida House and Senate could elect a slate of Bush electors by Wednesday. The eventual Florida winner will earn more than the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. While the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Saturday to take the Florida recount case on appeal from the Florida Supreme Court was not a surprise to some lawyers, the decision to halt the hand recount immediately shocked others. There's bound to be adverse political fallout from whatever the court does. The Supreme Court halted the recount because, said Hartley, it did not want to be trapped into the position of handing down a decision for Bush after the recount showed a majority of votes for Gore.