The Associated Press

Al Gore is trying to rally a skeptical public behind an unprecedented legal challenge to George W.

Tuesday, November 28, 2000

Al Gore is trying to rally a skeptical public behind an unprecedented legal challenge to George W. Bush’s certified election victory in Florida, telling Americans that ”ignoring votes means ignoring democracy itself.” His running mate sought today to soothe those growing impatient with an election that has stretched on for three weeks.

Bush’s running mate, Dick Cheney, countered that what’s best for the country is to end the legal challenges and hand them the keys to the White House transition office.

A day after Bush began moving in earnest on a transition and Gore contested Florida’s election certification, their vice presidential candidates continued on the morning talk shows.

”This is a matter of doing what we think is right, not just for us and the 50 million Americans who voted for us, but for our system, for history, to set a precedent,” Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, said on ”The Early Show.”

”We’re very mindful of what is good for the country and we certainly don’t want this to go on for very long,” he said.

Cheney said the Democrats, indeed, were trying to set a precedent – one that ”was going to create some problems.”

”It’s time to wrap this up that we’ve had the election, we’ve had the count, we’ve had the recount now we’ve had the certification of George W. Bush as the winner,” Cheney said on NBC’s ”Today” show.

He said the Bush team is ”rapidly running out of time to put together that new administration.”

Gore’s remarks, carried live on prime time television Monday night, closed a day full of legal and rhetorical skirmishing.

Bush’s legal team had written arguments to submit to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington in support of the Texas governor’s lawsuit challenging the validity of manual recounts.

Members of Gore’s legal team said they were hoping to provide Bush’s lawyers with their evidence and witness lists by Wednesday in their state court challenge to the Texas governor’s 537-vote victory in Florida.

Gore’s challenge to the results in Palm Beach, Nassau and Miami-Dade counties is before Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls, a jurist known for swift action. He told lawyers on Monday he understood their difficulty in trying to get the case resolved before the Dec. 12 deadline for selecting Florida’s 25 electors.