November 11-12, 2000: Two Florida Counties Announce Recounts

Two counties in Florida announce recount decisions. At 2:00 a.m., Palm Beach County officials indicate that a sample recount turned up 19 votes for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, and announce that the county’s manual recount, initially restricted to designated precincts, will now recount all 462,657 ballots. A manual recount of all ballots, says County Commissioner Carol Roberts, “clearly would affect the results of the national election.” Volusia County begins manually recounting its 184,018 ballots at 10:06 a.m. [US News and World Report, 12/13/2000; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/17/2000; Leip, 2008] The Bush campaign has requested the courts stop all manual recounts (see November 11-13, 2000). Republicans have been critical of the decision by the two Democrats on the Palm Beach County canvassing board, Roberts and Theresa LePore, to ask for the countywide recount, saying that the decision would require an extension of the November 14 submission deadline (see 9:00 a.m. November 13, 2000). [Salon, 11/13/2000]