"The Bush and Gore lawyers are arguing this morning whether my vote and others, overwhelmingly the votes of women and African Americans, are to be included in the Florida vote count," said Patricia Ireland, President of the National Organization for Women and a practicing attorney in Miami-Dade County for 12 years.

"I want my vote to count!" Ireland said, speaking to scores of NOW and other activists on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. "More than 10,000 ballots in Miami-Dade county have been rejected by some machine, without any opportunity for a human being to take a look. That's just not right.

"The Florida legislature clearly authorized a hand count of ballots. And, the Florida Supreme Court judges did just what they are supposed to do: they resolved the conflict after Katherine Harris effectively refused to accept the hand-counted votes, and they required her to do so. The U.S. Supreme Court should uphold that decision.

"Florida law also provides a period to contest the Secretary of State's certification of the election results. And yet, the state legislators appear ready to usurp our citizens' right to vote and simply anoint electors pledged to George W. Bush -- without waiting for the challenge to the certification or this Supreme Court case to be decided. These legislators present perhaps the gravest threat to the democratic process to date in this election," Ireland said.

Ireland went in to hear the arguments and will report to the National Board of NOW this evening.
Board members from each region of the country will hold special sessions at the two-day meeting
to plan NOW's actions through the inauguration, January 20.

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