F A L W E L L  C O N F I D E N T I A L

A weekly briefing for America's pastors and Christian leaders who may
use this publication without attribution.  This publication is made
available, without charge, to the evangelical pastors who are part of
the "Friends of Jerry Falwell Support Circle."

DATE: NOVEMBER 16, 2000
FROM: JERRY FALWELL

LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals which governs
the state of Florida has agreed to expedite an appeal filed yesterday
by three Florida residents who claim the hand counting of ballots in
selected Florida counties - all of which have canvassing boards
controlled by Democrats - is unconstitutional.  The appeal asks the
court to immediately halt the manual recounts of ballots.

The appeals court directed the counties of Palm Beach, Broward,
Miami-Dade and Volusia, along with the secretary of elections, to
file briefs by 7:00 a.m. this morning.  Only Miami-Dade did not do so.

The appeals court also agreed to impanel the entire court, which
means that the full twelve members of the court will hear the case,
rather than the typical three-judge panel.  Unlike the federal case
filed by the Bush campaign late last week, this case is on the fast
track and a final ruling could actually come by the end of this day!
(If a decision comes today, I will update you on this appeal in a
special "Falwell Confidential" tomorrow.)

The three Florida residents bringing this appeal sought out the help
of the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, the religious freedom law firm
that recently became affiliated with Jerry Falwell Ministries.  Mat
Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, and my son, Jerry Falwell Jr.,
serve as co-counsel of the organization.  (Jim Bopp, an Indiana
attorney, is assisting Liberty Counsel in this appeal.)

While Liberty Counsel has been involved in some crucial religious
freedom cases in recent months, this appeal could very well be the
most significant one they ever present in court.  In fact, this case
could be historic in that it actually determines who will sit in the
Oval Office as our nation's president.

On Wednesday, a judge, appointed to the federal bench by President
Clinton within the past six months, denied a request for a temporary
restraining order on the hand counting procedures.  That decision was
appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  (The Bush
campaign has intervened in this case, asking that it be made a party
to the lawsuit, due to the fact that the Eleventh Circuit Court has
agreed to hear our case on an expedited basis.)

The manner in which the manual recount is being handled violates the
equal protection of the voters in counties where there is no manual
recount.  In a statewide election, it is patently unfair to select
only those counties for a manual recount where the county popular
vote sided with one candidate.  Mat Staver noted that the
mathematical probabilities of having that candidate receive more
votes is the obvious result.  If there is a manual recount on a
statewide election, he noted, it should be done statewide and
objective standards for recounting should be applied statewide.

The appeal comes as Democrats are ferociously demanding that hand
counts are the only way to ensure accuracy in the Florida
presidential vote.  They insist that the Florida ballots, designed to
be read by machines, should be counted by hand.  Evidence, however,
shows that the hand counts require people doing the counting to make
potentially biased decisions.

Haley Barbour, a Bush adviser, accurately stated that the hand
counting can almost certainly result in skewed accounts of the vote.

"The machines are not Republican or Democrat," said Mr. Barbour.
"Every person who is hand counting the ballots voted for somebody -
Gore or Bush or Nader or Buchanan or whomever - and that introduces
subjectivity.  But worse than that, it introduces speculation.  What
did a person intend if there is a dent in the ballot?  The machine
count is fair, while a hand count is much less fair and much less accurate."

Mr. Barbour is correct.  In fact, the rules for counting the ballots
in Palm Beach changed in mid-stream of the hand counting.

Palm Beach County's Web site advised voters to punch through the
ballot in order to have their votes counted and further advised the
voters not to leave any hanging chads because those votes would not
be counted.  That was the standard Palm Beach officials utilized to
begin the recount, but that standard was later changed to count those
ballots where one corner of the ballot had been broken.

"Either the voter intended to vote for the candidate and didn't
complete the process, or the voter started to vote for the candidate
and changed their mind," said Mat Staver.  "Both are equally valid
assumptions.  Palm Beach officials are counting hanging chads as a
vote for the candidate, contrary to their own advice on their Web site."

The way the recount has been handled in Florida underscores how
unfair this process is to voters in Florida's other counties.

Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris has stated that she will,
after consulting Florida law, reject the manual counts.  Democratic
apologists have (of course) launched well-choreographed and brutal
attacks on Mrs. Harris, calling her a political "hack" and far worse.

Judge Terry Lewis earlier ruled that Mrs. Harris "cannot act in an
arbitrary or unreasonable manner" in deciding whether to include
ballots recounted by hand.  Earlier today (Thursday), Democrats went
to court to challenge Mrs. Harris' decision to ignore the late, hand-
counted returns from Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Harris has stated that she plans to announce the
certified result of the election on Saturday after overseas mail-in
ballots (presumed to largely favor Mr. Bush) have been counted.

Attempting to reverse the election results in Florida, Al Gore and
his team filed a motion claiming that Mrs. Harris has "violated this
court's order to determine upon receipt of late-filed, corrective or
supplemental returns submitted after completion of a manual recount,
whether such corrected or supplemental returns should be accepted."

The fact is that the Democrats are desperate to propel Al Gore into
the White House (under the guise of "the will of the people"), even
though the Florida machine recounts have confirmed that George W.
Bush is the winner in the state - and the winner of the race for the
presidency of the United States.

We at Jerry Falwell Ministries and Liberty Counsel are also desperate
- desperate to ensure that the law is enforced even when those on the
left want to manipulate, influence, control and alter the meaning of that law.

I urge my friends from across this nation to remain in prayer
regarding this momentous state of affairs.