[Carol Lin, Cnn Anchor:] Judge Sander Sauls describes this whole process, "like getting nibbled to death by a duck." He is, of course, talking about the barrage of legal motions and arguments blitzing Leon County Circuit Court. National correspondent Gary Tuchman is covering the court action in Tallahassee, and he hopefully is going to sort it all out for us. Hi, Gary.
[Gary Tuchman, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning to you, Carol. While George W. Bush works to betray a sense of calm in Texas. There is no such sense of calm among his attorneys here in Florida. Because they are battling two different judges in this courthouse, judges who have the authority to possibly swing this election to Al Gore. Last night inside this court, a judge set this Saturday as the date for the beginning of trial of Al Gore's contest against the 2000 election. But in the meantime, Judge N. Sanders Sauls has ordered that all disputed ballots from the Miami County Miami-Dade County and Palm Beach County immediately be brought here to Tallahassee. He has set the deadline for 12:00 noon this Friday. They will come under police escort. They will arrive here. Now, the Gore side has said it needs all these ballots counted, 13,500 ballots from Miami-Dade County, or actually 10,500 ballots I apologize from Miami-Dade County that were never counted by hand because the Miami-Dade County Canvassing Board stopped count; and 3300 ballots from Palm Beach County, which were counted, but the Gore side says were not counted liberally enough, they were not counting dimples liberally like they were in Broward County. They need all those ballots counted. The judge said, at this point, he has not decided if those ballots will be or if they won't be counted. He says it will depend upon the evidence. But he did order that once the ballots get here on Friday, the day before that, a hearing Thursday, which is tomorrow, will be held, a hearing to discuss standards for how to count those ballots, if hanging chads should be counted, if dimpled chads should be counted, if indented chads should be counted. So the judge, basically, is saying we want to everything in place if I do decide to count the ballots. Either way though, the Gore side says it might appeal the judge's decision not to start an immediate count. It might appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, but that decision hasn't been made just yet. Meanwhile, another judge in this very same building here has set Wednesday, this coming Wednesday for a trial, in the case of a citizen against Seminole County, Florida. Seminole County is accused of having Republican workers fill out missing data on voter registration cards after those voters voted for George W. Bush. In a worst case scenario for the Bush side, about 4,700 Bush votes could be thrown out. However, Bush attorneys say it is all a hyper-technicality and this is a ridiculous case. So there's a lot going on here in this courthouse right now for the lawyers on both side. Carol, back to you.
[Lin:] Gary, but in theory, the ballots are ready to be counted, and they could be counted as soon as Saturday, if that standard is set; right? Gary Tuchman? All right, we lost the audio signal. My apologies.