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Nobody ever
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But this is
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in action."
— Bob Crawford
Agriculture Commissioner
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— Don Liftman
Gore supporter
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) —Gov.
George W. Bush’s lead over Vie Presi
dent A1 Gore in crucial Florida shrank
to fewer than 300 votes by unofficial
count Thursday with allegations of ir
regularities swirling and ballots from
overseas residents still to be counted.
Recount results from 66 of the state’s
67 counties gave Republican Bush a
lead of 229 votes out of nearly 6 million
cast, according to an unofficial tally by
the Associated Press. The original “fi
nal” margin had been reported at 1,784.
AP called each county election offi
cial to get the final recount total for each
candidate in the county.
The official recount lagged behind,
and Secretary of State Katherine Harris
told an early evening news conference
that it could be as late as next Tuesday
— a week after the election — before
the state has certified ballot results from
all 67 counties. She also pointed out that
it would take even longer— at least un
til Nov. 17 — to tabulate ballots cast by
thousands of Floridians overseas and
postmarked by Election Day.
Bush had 2,909,814 votes to
2,909,585 for Gore, a difference of 229.
One election board member. Agri
culture Commissioner Bob Crawford,
defended the pace of the recount.
“Nobody ever said that democracy
was simple or efficient,” he said. “But
this is democracy in action.”
Crawford said anyone wanting sim
plicity should look to the south, to
Cuba, a reference to the dictatorship of
Fidel Castro.
The Gore campaign criticized the
ballots in use in Palm Beach County as
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CHAD ADAMS/The Battalion
[M defensive back Jay Brooks tackles Kansas State quarterback
lathan Beasley. Saturday's game against OU will be the second
e A&M faces a Top 1 0 opponent at Kyle Field this season.
itarggifs to face OU,
a moking for upset
JBlaine Dionne
’■Battalion
At the beginning of this season, the
as A&M football players already
I the Oklahoma game circled on their
edules. They wanted revenge for the
6 drubbing they received from the
>ners in Norman, Okla., last year.
What an opportunity the Aggies (7-
verall, 5-1 Big 12) have for atone-
nt now. The Sooners (8-0, 5-0) are
No.l team in the country with a
isman candidate at quarterback, and
cM finds itself faced with the ulti-
te spoiler role.
‘We’ve got to show up and prove to
nation that we can play football,”
d outside linebacker Jason Glenn,
his is a big-time game, national TV.
e No. 1 team in the nation going
linst Texas A&M, a very solid foot-
1 program, and we’re going to come
t there and show them that we can
iy football, too.”
The No. 1 Sooners are coming off a
xessful tuneup game against the
©ales open at 9a.m. fo
lifet holders
See Football on Page 8.
SELSO GARCIA/The Battalion
confusing, and asked for a hand count
of votes cast there and in three other
counties. Palm Beach County agreed
to hand-count ballots in three precincts
on Saturday.
In the meantime, a circuit judge is
sued a preliminary injunction barring
the canvassing commission in the coun
ty from certifying the final recount re
sults until a hearing is held Tuesday.
That was in response to a legal chal
lenge filed with the support of De
mocrats who say a poor ballot design
in the county led some Gore support
ers to inadvertently mark their ballots
for Pat Buchanan.
The court order said the ballot was
designed and printed in such a way that
voters were deprived of their right to
freely express their will.
“We expect legal challenges,” said
Clay Roberts of the Department of Elec
tions, refusing to comment further.
Thus far, 66 of Florida’s 67 counties
have forwarded recount materials to
the state.
Harris said the board count was be
hind the AP tally because the board is
only reporting “those that are unoffi
cially certified.”
It.was unclear how many ballots from
Floridians living overseas were still un
counted— in fact still unreceived. An in
formal survey of 28 of the 67 election su
pervisors found that they had mailed
more than 7,000, that a little less than half
had been returned and no information
was available on how many had been
counted. That tally did not include some
of the state’s largest counties, including
Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.
See Election on Page 2.
Recount Vote
Totals for Florida
(from AP as of 9:30 p.m.
absentee ballots outstanding)
Bush
2,909,814
Gore
2,909,585 votes
BRANDON HENDERSON/The Battalion
House investigates network calls
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House telecom
munications panel launched, an investigation
Thursday into what led news organizations to
prematurely call Vice President A1 Gore the
winner in Florida and whether that depressed
voter turnout elsewhere in the country.
The panel’s chairman. Republican Rep. Bil
ly Tauzin of Louisiana, told reporters that the
call for Gore, which was reversed a few hours
later, happened before all polls in Florida had
closed and may have deterred Republican vot
ers in states where polls were open much later.
Tauzin said that calling Florida for Gore
“may have sent a signal out to Americans that
this election was being decided in a way that
was not accurate. When they’re being told by
the networks that it’s already over, that’s akin to
disenfranchising them.”
Between 7:49 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST Tues
day, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, ABC and the As
sociated Press all called Florida, with its de
cisive 25 electoral votes, for Gore. Polls were
still open in the western part of Florida, which
is>in the central time zone, as well as most
states in the West.
At about 9:55 p.m. EST, the networks and
the AP began taking back those projections
based on the actual Florida vote count that
showed a tight race between Gore and Gov.
George W. Bush.
“When [Americans are]
being told by the net
works that it's already
over, that's akin to dis
enfranchising them”
— Billy Tauzin
House telecommunications panel
chairman and Republican representative
Accused B-CS rapist fights
extradition, denies charges
By Sommer Bunge
The Battalion
Fugitive Don Richard Davis
Jr., arrested in Cleveland, Ohio,
last week and accused of sexual
ly assaulting two Texas A&M
women, has chosen to fight ex
tradition to Texas.
Davis, an A&M graduate, was
indicted in 1996 on two charges of
aggravated sexual assault on the
A&M campus. Just days before
his scheduled trial, Davis skipped
bail and has since been on the run.
After an Oct. 24 arrest for a
traffic violation in Cleveland,
Davis’ fingerprints alerted au
thorities that he was a fugitive
from Texas. The Brazos County
district attorney’s office must
now ask the governor’s office to
extradite Davis to Texas for trial.
The extradition process en
ables the Texas governor to ask
the governor of another state to
release a suspected fugitive to
Texas’ custody.
Davis is held in Ohio in lieu of
a $10 million bail and is fighting
extradition on the grounds that he
is not the man authorities have
been seeking. The Cleveland sher
iff’s office initially thought Davis
would choose to waive extradi
tion. However, Davis’ appointed
attorney may have advised him
not to waive the extradition.
“Extradition cases, in general,
center around identity,” said Bra
zos County District Attorney Bill
Turner. “You have to carefully
examine fingerprints and photos.
What’s at issue here is whether
he is the same person.”
The extradition process can
take 30 to 90 days, Turner said.
In Texas, the two charges of
aggravated sexual assault are pun
ishable by up to 99 years in
prison, said A&M University Po
lice Department director Bob
Wiatt.
The evidence that police have
against Davis makes the case
rock-solid, he said.
“We have a complete match
of Davis’ DNA fitting with the
two victims,” Wiatt said. “The
[victims] have also identified
him in a lineup.”
According to The Bryan-Col-
lege Station Eagle, Davis has
been arrested twice since he
skipped bail in Texas, and he has
lied to police both times about his
identity. He first used the name
William Allen Webster and listed
himself as homeless, then took
the pseudonym Bryan Armstead.
Posing as Armstead, Davis
earned money as a bouncer and
disc jockey at a strip club, he told
Ohio police when he was arrest
ed for the traffic violation. He
was released but was arrested
Oct. 31, after his fingerprints
were checked by the Ohio crim
inal justice computer system.
A co-worker of Davis said the
man he knows as Armstead has
been in Cleveland for at least two
years. The Eagle reported.
If the extradition is success
ful, a trial date will be set at a
court in Brazos County. The dis
trict attorney’s office cannot give
a specific date yet.
Early Wednesday, the TV networks called
Florida for Bush and declared him winner of the
presidential election, then were forced to back
down on that projection as well. The AP did not
declare an election winner. A recount is under
way to determine the actual winner.
Tauzin said he is sending a letter to the heads
of the TV networks and the AP asking a series
of questions about how the projections are
made. Although Congress returns for a lame-
duck session on the budget next week, Tauzin
said hearings would probably not take place un
til next year.
Central to the probe, he said, is the role of
the Voter News Service, a consortium of the
networks and the AP that uses voter exit polls
and actual results to help make election pro
jections. Other news organizations subscribe
to VNS data.
“I don’t intend to violate the law or the spirit
See Early Calls on Page 8.
Driving
program
renewed
By Auai i Bii.yi i a( iiakya
The Bill tali on
To combat reckless driving at in
lerscctions and enforce automobile
safety. Bryan and C ’ollege Station arc
renewing the stale’s Selective Tral
lie Enforcement Program (S'li l*).
SI FT' is a two phase program:
one phase is designed lor intersec
tion traffic control, and the second
phase for enforcing safe and sober
driving. The Sale and Sober pro
gram targets seat belt usage, child re
strainls, speeding and DWIs. Both
programs are funded by federal
grants administered by the Texas
I)epnrtmerit ol Transportation.
“We can't measure an increase in
tral fie or young drivers, hut since the
start of the intersection control pro
gram, there has been a 16 percent
decrease in intersection wrecks and
a 12 percent decrease in reported in
juries,' said STEP administrator
See STEP on Page 2.