Wednesday Roundup

A summary of Wednesday’s developments:

*

Recounts

* Gore’s attorneys asked a Florida appeals court for an immediate start to counting disputed ballots. The Gore appeal--of a timetable set Tuesday by Leon County Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls--was expected to be passed up to the state’s Supreme Court.

*

* More than 1.1 million ballots from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties will be driven today to Tallahassee. Sauls granted a Bush request that all of the counties’ ballots be sent to the state capital for possible recounting, not just the nearly 14,000 disputed ballots requested by the Democrats.

*

* Gore’s net gain in Palm Beach County’s hand recount was put at 188 votes. Earlier estimates set Gore’s net gain at 215. Because Palm Beach missed a court-set deadline for reporting its results, Gore’s gain was not included in Sunday’s certified total.

*

Collusion case

* Preparing for next week’s trial over allegations that Seminole County election officials colluded with Republicans to correct faulty absentee ballot requests, GOP attorneys demanded that they be allowed to depose Gore.

*

* A state appeals court denied a request by Bush to consolidate the Seminole County case with Gore’s lawsuit contesting the election results.

*

Other news

* Florida’s Republican-dominated Legislature continued to debate the need to go into special session, as early as next week, to name its own slate of presidential electors.

*

* The Bush camp opened a transition office in suburban Washington because the General Services Administration refuses to turn over a government-provided transition office until the winner of the presidency is more certain.