Afternoon, November 14, 2000: Judge Upholds 5 P.M. Certification Deadline, Counties File Appeal

Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis upholds Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris’s decision to require complete election certification by 5:00 p.m. today (see 9:00 a.m. November 13, 2000). Harris is the co-chair of Florida’s Bush campaign team (see After 3:30 a.m. November 8, 2000 and After). Lewis says supplemental returns can be filed after the deadline, but Harris can ignore them after circumstances are considered and if she uses what Lewis calls “proper exercise of discretion.” Observers expect the Gore campaign to file an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court. Officials in Volusia County—joined later by Broward and Palm Beach Counties—move to appeal Lewis’s ruling. [Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit In and For Leon County, Florida, 11/14/2000 ; US News and World Report, 12/13/2000; Vanity Fair, 10/2004; Leip, 2008]