The proposal, which was rejected in a 10-9 vote, identified 23 memos, letters or reports from Sept. 25, 2001, through March of this year on topics that included the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and rules for interrogation.
After the initial pitches were completed, a quick vote identified the most popular concepts and teams coalesced around those concepts.
In 2000, 39% of those who voted identified themselves as Democrats, compared with 35% as Republican.
It also ordered the inclusion in the certified vote totals of 215 votes identified in Palm Beach County and 168 votes identified in Miami-Dade County for Vice President Albert Gore Jr., and Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democratic candidates for president and vice president.
Because the county canvassing boards identified legal votes and these votes could change the outcome of the election, we hold that the trial court erred in rejecting the legal votes identified in the Miami-Dade County and Palm Beach County manual recounts.
This number, therefore, under the plain language of the statute, is limited to the votes identified and challenged under section 102.168(3)(c), rather than the entire county.
And the Supreme Court, reviewing that trial, said you've had these votes identified by Miami-Dade, 168 net votes; by Palm Beach, 215 net votes; and those votes need to be included, not because JUSTICE SCALIA.
Appellants claim that the certified vote totals must be amended to include legal votes identified as being for one of the presidential candidates by the county canvassing boards of Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade during their manual recounts.
As to Miami-Dade County, the Court concluded that although the 168 votes identified were the result of a partial recount, they were "legal votes that could change the outcome of the election".
Rejecting the circuit court's conclusion that Palm Beach County lacked the authority to include the 215 net votes submitted past the Nov. 26 deadline, the Supreme Court explained that the deadline was not intended to exclude votes identified after that date through ongoing manual recounts.
