Gore will continue legal fight despite court setback

While Gore struggled for survival in the presidential race, Bush sought to convey the image of a man increasingly confident of victory. Aides said he would receive his first post-election intelligence briefing from the CIA on Tuesday at the governor's mansion in Austin, Texas.

"I do believe that I have won this election," Bush said even before Sauls deflated the Democratic hopes of a breakthrough in the long campaign. In something of a softening in tone, Bush seemed eager to give Gore room to concede without undue pressure.

The vice president, he said, is "going to have to make the decisions that he thinks are necessary and I know he'll put — the interests of the country will be important in his decision making, just like it would be in mine."

The winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes will take office on Jan. 20 as the nation's 43rd president. But Democrats were also looking at a Dec. 12 deadline for certifying Florida electors before the Electoral College meets Dec. 18, and the Florida Legislature was one short step away from calling a special session to appoint electors loyal to Bush.

As yet, Gore offered no hint he might be near giving up his quest for the White House. The vice president dispatched running mate Joseph Lieberman to the Capitol for Tuesday morning meetings with lawmakers to rally the troops, and won expressions of support Monday evening from the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate as well as a group of party moderates who had stayed in the background.

"Only the Florida Supreme Court can provide the finality needed to ensure the most accurate count of the votes in Florida," said Reps. Cal Dooley of California and Jim Moran of Virginia.

That's where Gore's legal team aimed, even before Sauls' courtroom had cleared out in the wake of his pivotal ruling Monday evening.

Speaking to a battery of top-dollar lawyers for both sides as well as a national television audience, Sauls ruled that the evidence did not establish "any illegality, dishonesty, gross negligence, improper influence, coercion or fraud in the balloting and counting processes" in the Florida counties where Gore sought such recounts.

And he said that while the record shows voter error and/or less than total accuracy in regard to the punch-card voting devices utilized in Dade and Palm Beach counties, Gore failed to show a "reasonable probability" that a recount would alter the statewide result.

The judge refused to sweep aside Bush's 537-vote certified victory and begin courthouse counts of what Gore said were missed votes that had been rejected by machines in heavily Democratic counties.

Sauls' ruling was one of numerous legal developments during the day in an election that has spawned more than 40 lawsuits, including two that were being argued Tuesday in Atlanta federal court. The suits by Bush supporters ask that any Florida presidential election results using hand recounts be thrown out.

Before Sauls' ruling Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court earlier in the day vacated a Nov. 21 Florida Supreme Court ruling that had extended the deadline for ballot recounting, to Gore's benefit.

The justices, in an unsigned, unanimous ruling, sent the case back "for further proceedings." Within a few hours, the state court called for written arguments from the two sides on the legal issues involved to be filed by 3 p.m. EST Tuesday.

"We do not ignore what they tell us," Florida Supreme Court spokesman Craig Waters said of the nation's highest court.

The high court's opinion was something of a setback for Gore, although his attorneys said it merely stopped the case in its tracks, and held out the promise of a later favorable ruling.

Not so the judgment issued by Sauls a few hours later. That was a major blow to the Gore campaign, and his lawyers did little to hide it.

Speaking from the bench, Sauls said county canvassing boards in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Nassau counties all had acted within their discretion in tabulating votes.

He said there was "no authority under Florida law" for certifying an incomplete manual recount or for submitting returns after a deadline fixed by the state Supreme Court, a vindication of the actions of Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a GOP partisan who certified Bush the winner.

"I think whoever wins at the Florida Supreme Court, we'll accept that," Boies said, outlining for the first time an end game to the long-count election.

Democrats were glum, even though they heeded Gore's request, to stay by his side until the Florida Supreme Court rules.

Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., said the case is "a legal issue that at some point becomes an issue of time."

"This was a punch that knocked him down, but it didn't knock him out," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

Andrew Card, Bush's prospective chief of staff, said the day's court rulings had buoyed the Republican camp and given new impetus to efforts to form a new Bush government.

"We'll be able to move pretty quickly," once there is either a conclusive court ruling or a Gore concession, Card said in an interview.