- Title: UNITED STATES: WORKERS PREPARE FOR PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION IN WASHINGTON
- Date: 29th November 2000
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 29, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF WORKERS BUILDING PRESIDENTIAL REVIEWING STAND FOR INAUGURATION OUTSIDE WHITE HOUSE/ PEOPLE WATCHING/ U.S. FLAG (9 SHOTS) 1.14 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 14th December 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVAAOD8FVO1QBE8KNX1QJ1981RK6
- Story Text: As workers prepared in Washington for the presidential
inauguration on Wednesday (November 29), the battle for the
White House was still being fought in the Florida and Supreme
courts.
The contest for the U.S. presidency dragged into a fourth
week on Wednesday as Democrat Al Gore ratcheted up a public
relations blitz to press for new vote counts in Florida and
Republican George W. Bush, the self-declared winner, raced to
assemble his Cabinet.
Gore, in an interview on NBC's "Today" show, said he
believed the majority of people in Florida voted for him and
running mate Joseph Lieberman, and he gave himself even odds
of prevailing in his contest of the state's election results.
Florida officials certified Bush as the victor in their
state on Sunday by a margin of 537 votes out of nearly 6
million cast. The slim victory gave Bush the state's 25
electoral votes, putting him over the 270 needed to move into
the White House.
But Gore is contesting the results in the courts of law
and public opinion, arguing that more than 10,000 ballots in
three Democratic strongholds in Florida were not thoroughly
counted by machine and were never counted by hand.
Lawyers for Bush and Gore are preparing for key hearings
-- in the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday and in a Florida court
on Saturday -- that may finally determine the outcome of the
Nov. 7 presidential election.
Briefs were due by 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) on Wednesday in a
third set of cases before the Florida Supreme Court in which
the Democrats are seeking a new presidential vote in Palm
Beach County because of a confusing butterfly ballot they say
cost Gore thousands of votes.
Gore appeared in public twice on Monday, again on Tuesday,
and yet again on Wednesday morning for a television interview
-- eager to shore up ebbing support as public opinion polls
showed that up to 60 percent of Americans believed he should
concede the election to Bush.
But an NBC poll taken on Monday evening after the vice
president made a five-minute televised address, while
revealing growing impatience with the drawn-out process,
showed that number had slipped back down to around 49 percent.
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