John G. Roberts, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, played a role in the
chaotic, 36-day period following the disputed 2000 presidential election.
by Gary Fineout and Mary Ellen Klas
TALLAHASSEE -- U.S. Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts provided legal advice to Gov. Jeb Bush in the
weeks following the November 2000 election as part of the effort to make sure the governor's brother won the
disputed presidential vote.
Roberts, at the time a private attorney in Washington, D.C., came to Tallahassee to advise the state's Republican
administration as it was trying to prevent a Democratic end-run that the GOP feared might give the election to Al
Gore, sources told The Herald.
The maneuver, which the Democrats never attempted, might have kept the state from
sending its list of official ''electors'' -- the Electoral College members who actually cast the
votes that count -- to Congress and the National Archives.
If the names were not forwarded to Washington in a timely fashion, Republicans feared,
Gore might be declared the winner because Florida's 25 electoral votes wouldn't be
counted -- and the Democrat had garnered more electoral votes than George W. Bush in
the rest of the country.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0721-07.htm (orig. from Miami Herald subcriber only pub)
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