Recount Page #4

'Cause their election laws

are completely ass backwards.

There's no mechanism

to ask for a statewide recount.

You have to go to each individual

county. That's 67 separate hearings.

Jesus, Bill, it's recount theory 101...

If you're behind, you demand recounts,

as many ballots as possible.

Okay, all right,

say by some sort of miracle

we get all the counties to agree.

- How long do you think it will take?

- Two to four weeks.

The certification deadline

is in six days.

Look, if at the end of a machine

recount we're trailing by 4,000 votes,

then we all should pack our bags, but

at the moment we're only down by 1,800.

After winning

the national popular vote by 500,000.

Lawton Chiles doesn't run

this state anymore, Ron.

They control everything.

The Governor's his brother.

Katherine Harris is co-chair of the Bush

Florida campaign, for Christ's sake.

The entire legislature is republican.

What about some partial recounts,

just a couple of counties?

- It is not gonna work.

- Wait a minute. Palm Beach and Volusia

were the main source

of problems on election day.

We'd be justified in asking

for recounts those two counties.

All three member the Palm Beach

canvassing board are democrats.

They'll probably agree

to a hand recount.

We've got to start punching, Chris.

The Bush brothers are not gonna be

so interested in a dignified process.

That may be true,

but the world is watching.

We are theoretically

its last great democracy.

If we cannot resolve this in a way

that is worthy of the office we seek,

what kind of hope do we give other

countries that wish to share our values?

Jesus.

"Last great democracy"?

- Come on, don't start.

- You gotta f***in' be kiddin' me.

I love Warren Christopher,

but I think the guy's so tight

he probably eats his M&Ms

with a knife and a fork.

Listen, there's a giant scoreboard

out there.

We can't play a gentleman's game

or we're gonna lose.

Whoever has the ball

when the clock runs out

- is gonna be declared the winner.

- Gore also wants to win.

He just doesn't want to set

the constitution on fire to do it.

Right now we're down by less

than 2,000 votes.

Meanwhile, there's 175,000 ballots

out there that the counting machines

have declared non-votes.

- So that's 175,000 uncounted ballots.

- How does a thing like that happen?

Because punch-card ballots are f***ed,

okay? They're primitive.

You got cardboard chad

that get punched but don't go

all the way through the holes

- so they're hanging off the ballot.

- Hanging chads?

Chad.

What?

There's no "s."

The plural of chad is chad?

- "The last great democracy".

- Jesus.

So when you take these ballots

and put them through

the tabulating system, what happens is

the hanging chad get pushed back

into the holes.

And the machines read it as if

the holes were never actually punched

so then these are discarded

as "undervotes."

But wait,

sometimes hanging chad don't even hang,

- they're just dimpled.

- Dimpled?

Which means that the voter didn't align

the ballot properly in the machine

or just didn't push hard enough

to get the chad to go through.

How hard is it to punch a paper ballot?

It's pretty goddamn hard

when you're 80-something years old,

you're arthritic and blind

as a f***ing bat.

Unfortunately for us, blind f***ing bats

tend to vote democratic.

Not to mention the fact

that the votomatics sometimes

don't get cleaned out

for years and years.

So they can get completely jammed up

with chads...

- "Chad."

- And the next...

Sorry.

The next thing you know, it's impossible

for the voter to penetrate it at all.

So you just end up with dimpled chad.

This tends to happen in poorer

neighborhoods where they don't have

up-to-date, brand-new voting equipment.

And I don't have to tell you

who those people,

vote for, okay?

All I'm saying, Ron, is

we have to have actual live human beings

doing this recount.

What about Chris and Daley?

They don't want a hand recount.

You know what? I get it.

I get it, okay? I do.

When this is over, you can go back

to Warren Christopher's law firm.

Listen.

But right now f*** it...

You gotta get these guys to agree

to get a hand recount.

Listen, everybody feels the same way

about what happened to you

with the campaign, okay?

But Gore went with Coelho

because he knew Tony was a fighter.

And Tony proved it

when he pushed you out. All right?

Now it's time to prove to Al Gore who

the real Ron f***ing Klain really is.

It's time to show Al Gore

that Ron Klain is a f***ing brawler

and that's he not gonna back down

from this particular f***ing fight.

Anyone ever tell you

you say "f***" a lot?

Six counties have been reviewed so far.

The total for Governor Bush...

That's an increase of 18 votes for him.

Yes,

I'm looking at your final tallies here,

and apparently you did not actually run

the ballots through the machine again.

We have our own standards

for a machine recount here.

That may be,

but you are supposed to put the ballots

through the machine a second time.

Hello, it's Clay Roberts here.

I'm sorry I had to call you back.

Things are very busy,

as you might imagine.

Hi, Mr. Roberts.

Yes, you must put the ballots through

the machine a second time.

Otherwise, you technically

did not conduct a recount.

We rechecked the memory cards,

and as far as I'm concerned,

that's all we're required to do.

I sent out guidelines

for a machine recount procedure

several months ago...

Mr. Roberts, we're just going to

retabulate the memory cards.

Thank you for calling.

The world is watching us, Jim.

This is a tremendous opportunity

to show how a nation of our power

can resolve a conflict as great as this

through diplomacy and compromise.

Compromise?

I thought we were here

to discuss scheduling.

Well, yes,

but it was my feeling that

we should be able to agree on a method

to settle this matter.

There's nothing to settle.

If we're ahead at the completion

of this machine recount

our position is this...

Governor Bush has won the election;

Katherine Harris will certify

the election.

No negotiations, no compromises,

no extensions.

Bush is President.

I go home. End of story.

It's always great to see you, Jim.

And you, Chris.

That's it?

For the present.

- You've got to be kidding.

- What did you think was gonna happen?

A bit of a fight.

It is brass-knuckle time, Chris.

It's time to take off the gloves

and I know Gore feels exactly

the same way.

He says it in every conference call.

He wants to fight.

We may be ill-equipped to fight.

We're working out of a strip mall.

And I'm worried about his future.

He's a young man. He can run again,

but not if he destroys his career

with a prolonged legal battle.

But the fight is here, it's now.

Look,

Berger's moving us into

his law firm tomorrow.

Whouley's setting up a base

in Ft. Lauderdale,

and we've still got five more days

before the 14th.

I agree that there is a battle

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