Tuesday, November 14, 2000
Following is the transcript of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris's announcement of the certified vote recounts in the Florida presidential election.
HARRIS: Good evening. I'm going to read a brief statement, but please understand, on the advice of our legal counsel, I won't be answering any questions this evening.
First of all, I'd like to thank all of the independently elected supervisors of elections, their staff, their volunteers for the extraordinary work they performed over the past seven days. And they've just been terrific.
And I'd also like to acknowledge the overwhelming support that we have received as we've worked to fulfill our statutory responsibilities in ensuring a consistent, accurate and independent process.
As of 5 p.m. today, the director of the Division of Elections reported receiving certified returns from all 67 counties, as required by law. In the race for the president of the United States, these certified results from Florida's 67 counties for the top two candidates are as follows. Governor George Bush: 2,910,492. Vice President Al Gore: 2,910,192.
The usual practice of the state Elections Canvassing Commission is to certify these returns as soon as the compilations are completed by the division's staff. However, in three Florida counties--Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward Counties--these counties may be contemplating amended returns based upon manual recounts not completed as of today's statutory deadline.
Within the past hour, the director of the Division of Elections faxed a memorandum to the supervisors of elections in these three Florida counties.
In accordance with today's court ruling confirming my discretion in these matters, I'm requiring a written statement of the facts and circumstances that would cause these counties to believe that a change should be made before the final certification of the state-wide vote. This written statement is due in our office by 2 p.m. tomorrow.
Unless I determine, in the exercise of my discretion, that these facts and circumstances contained within these written statements justify an amendment to today's official returns, the state Elections Canvassing Commission, in a manner consistent with its usual and normal practice, will certify statewide results reported to this office today. Subsequently, the overseas ballots that are due by Friday will also be certified, and the final results of the election for president of the United States of America in the state of Florida will be announced.
We will continue to keep you informed of the relevant developments as they occur.
Thank you very much.