Election in the Courts.Since Election Day, hundreds of lawyers for both the Republicans and Democrats have flocked to Florida. Both sides have filed a number of court cases to support their candidates' vote claims. After Florida's Secretary of State certified See certification. George W. Bush as the winner of the state's 25 electoral votes, he said it was too late to continue fighting: "[Gore] is filing a contest to the outcome of the election, and that is not the best route for America." But Al Gore Noun 1. Al Gore - Vice President of the United States under Bill Clinton (born in 1948) Albert Gore Jr., Gore argued that the totals reported by the Florida Secretary of State were incorrect, saying, "They include illegal votes and do not include legal votes that were improperly rejected." Gore's lawyers asked a Florida Circuit Court in Tallahassee to hand-count more than 13,000 ballots from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Bush lawyers objected, saying that if any ballots are manually counted, the vote of the entire state should be included. Lawyers for Gore unsuccessfully asked the court to speed up the process, because time was running out. Federal law requires states to name their electors electors, in the history of the Holy Roman Empire, the princes who had the right to elect the German kings or, more exactly, the kings of the Romans (Holy Roman emperors). by December 12. In an entirely separate case, a voter filed A voter file is a list of all registered voters in an area. In the US most states compile this list under the organization responsible for elections. It is generally available to candidates for office and political organizations for a fee. a lawsuit in Seminole County Seminole County is the name of several counties in the United States:
n. A vote as cast by absentee ballot. absentee voter n. be tossed out. Supreme Court Decision George W. Bush had his own case before the U.S. Supreme Court His lawyers, asked the nation's highest court to throw out an earlier ruling by Florida's Supreme Court. That ruling allowed hand-counted votes to be included in the totals, and it extended the deadline for counting such votes. Republicans argued that the Florida Supreme Court had "made law"-- which is the job of the legislature. Gore lawyers countered that the Florida court had properly exercised its power of judicial review by solving differences between conflicting state laws. Solving Disputes Should an election end up in the courts? Yes, say many observers. In a democracy, that is where disputes can be peacefully solved. Peri E. Arnold, a Notre Dame Notre Dame IPA: [nɔtʁ dam] is French for Our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary. In the United States of America, Notre Dame professor, says that our willingness to take this election to court is "a strength rather than a weakness. There are a relatively small number of countries that have a long history of taking the voice of the people so seriously." THE PATH TO THE SUPREME COURT THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT United States Supreme Court: see Supreme Court, United States. FLORIDA STATE COURTS Nine justices. Hears cases at its discretion from federal or state courts. * FLORIDA SUPREME COURT Top state court with 7 justices * DISTRICT COURTS 5 courts that hear appeals from the circuit * CIRCUIT COURTS appeals and some new cases * COUNTY COURTS 67 of them, one for each Florida county FEDERAL COURTS * U.S. COURT OF APPEALS PEALS 13 Nationwide; the one overseeing Florida is in Atlanta * U.S. DISTRICT COURTS 94 judicial districts nationwide, three in Florida. Federal cases start here. |
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