“It’s mind-boggling.”

That statement, made by professor of political science Kenneth Warren, Ph.D., may more accurately sum up the current state of the 2000 Presidential Campaign than any other.

Twenty-four days after Election Day, George W. Bush currently leads Al Gore by 537 certified votes. The Bush legal team is petitioning the United States Supreme Court to review the Florida Supreme Court’s decision to extend the certification deadline, to include the manual recounts. Gore’s legal team went before the Florida Supreme Court to ask that the disputed ballots in the Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties be recounted and included in the official total certified Sunday.

“The situation is clearly in a state of confusion,” said Steven Puro, Ph.D., professor of political science. “[The candidates] are involved in a variety of legal battles. These battles are going on at the state and federal level. There are questions here whether state or federal law applies here.”

The Republicans, in an odd twist, are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, accusing the State Supreme Court of creating new laws in the middle of the election.

The Bush team decided to approach the U.S. Supreme Court, believing that the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its bounds by extending the deadline for the manual recounts earlier in the month. They argue that the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, acted properly and according to the law when she decided not to accept any of the manual recount results when it came time to certify the vote. A decision the Gore team appealed in the Florida Supreme Court. The Court blocked the secretary from certifying any votes until it could rule on the Democrats’ motion to include the manual recount.

“Of paramount importance is the enfranchisement of the vote,” said Warren. “The counting of the votes is paramount, not deadlines.”

The crux of the matter lies in two conflicting pieces of Florida legislation. One states that the Secretary of State must certify the votes one week after the election. The secretary may allow any counties that have not finished their recount to submit them late, but only with good reason. The other law states that manual recounting of votes is legal, but sets no specific deadline to which the manual recount must adhere.

The manual recounts in the Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties were not completed by the Nov. 14 deadline and so were under threat of not being certified. The Florida Supreme Court then blocked the secretary of state from certifying any votes until the manual recount was completed. On Nov. 21, the Supreme Court decided that the manual-recount results must be included in the final certified tally.

The Republicans, after seeing the numerous Democratic victories at the state level, decided that the State Supreme Court had gone too far.

“In my view the Florida Supreme Court took a very limited view of the legislation,” said Puro. “The court looked at two conflicting pieces of law and tried to decide what the legislature intended.”

The Bush camp took an odd step, for Republicans. Often known for their firm belief in states rights (the doctrine that maintains that in a state vs. federal disagreement, the federal government should defer to the state), they have decided to ignore the state court’s rulings and take it to the federal court system.

“It’s particularly perverse in that they have been the supporters of states’ rights, and now when the issue is not working for them, they go to the federal level,” said Puro.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the Republican and Democratic arguments regarding Bush’s challenge on Friday.

“The Supreme Court tends to vote on partisan lines,” said Warren.

The exception comes when there is overwhelming precedence or overriding doctrines. A good example, said Warren, was the favorable 9-0 ruling on flag burning. The court, saying that it was a form of symbolic free speech, believed it to be unquestionably protected by the First Amendment.

Warren believes that the court will most likely defer to the state. It is likely that the court only considered the case to lend legitimacy to the matter, to ensure the highest court in the land had a say.

The court is expected to decide on Tuesday whether to take the case or not. If the U.S. Supreme Court defers the case back to the Florida Supreme Court, the process of litigation will continue on both sides.

Regardless of what occurs in the courts and in Florida, the dispute must end by Dec. 12. By then, the state must choose its electors for the Electoral College.