The 2000 Election
Former State Senator Tom Brown, a Democrat who was chairman of the Florida Senate
Committee on Ethics and Elections in 1989 when the Legislature passed the bill creating the 5
p.m. deadline, said lawmakers assumed the secretary of state would apply common sense to
deciding when a recount was warranted.

"If we are going to allow somebody to request a recount, the intent obviously is that you
expect a recount to be included," said Mr. Brown, who is now retired and living in
Tallahassee. "That would be an extenuating circumstance."

Regarding the secretary of state's earlier position that the deadline must be enforced with
exceptions only for acts of God, Mr. Brown said, "I think that is ridiculous. She obviously
has discretion. You don't write a law giving people the ability to request a manual recount and
then say you can do the recount but then not have it counted. That is obviously an absurdity."