FEP 43 Page 32 M: No. P: What other two cases were you involved in? M: Well, there was Touchston v. McDermott, that was in Orlando I believe, and then there was another case filed in Miami, also seeking to enjoin us from conducting a recount. I forget who the plaintiff was in that case. P: But you didn't have to testify in either of those cases? M: No, because the staff county attorney handled the whole matter. P: I ask that because when the contest took place before Judge Sauls, Judge Burton ended up going and testifying in that case. Let me just get your reaction to some of the court decisions. So, on November 26, the new date, we see that the Florida Supreme Court gives Katherine Harris an option: five o'clock on Sunday or nine o'clock on Monday, and she chooses five o'clock Sunday, and Palm Beach does not get their vote in on time. M: Because Judge Burton said we need to take Thanksgiving off. P: Yes. M: Well, my attitude is you do whatever it takes. I worked at least eighteen hours every day and I was running on adrenaline. Every day I had to flog myself to get out of bed, and I said to myself, listen, this is probably the most important thing you're ever going to do in your entire life, get out of bed, you can catch up on your sleep once this thing is over. P: I think you said a couple of times, it's the right thing to do, we have to get it right. M: Of course, of course. When I heard that Judge Burton had decided to take Thanksgiving off, I said to myself, what is he thinking? I mean, you've been given an extension by the Supreme Court of Florida. So, he took Thanksgiving off and they didn't make the deadline, and so, consequently, they reported what they had, but there were some people [who were] disenfranchised. P: No question about it. And, of course, his discussion of that, I don't want to get into it in this interview, but they were so tired and they'd had so much conflict because of looking at these little pin pricks of light and trying to see the dimples. He just thought it would help them speed up the process if they took time off. What they probably should have done is taken off one morning, or maybe an 32