It's already official: Bush has Fla. electors

Records on file with the

National Archives and Records Administration and sent by the Florida secretary of state's office on Nov. 27 show that Texas Gov. George W. Bush has already won the U.S. presidential election.

According to published information, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified the state's ballots Nov. 26 in favor of Bush, giving him the Sunshine State's crucial 25 electoral votes.

After Harris certified the results, she sent them to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who then signed the certificate of ascertainment identifying the presidential electors. Bush then sent them via registered mail to the national archivist on Monday, Nov. 27. Per federal law, Florida's role in the 2000 presidential election has been completed.

Though the process was complete ten days ago, the campaign of Vice President Al Gore has refused to recognize Florida's certification as legitimate. Today, the Gore legal team filed new briefs before the state Supreme Court in an effort to get 14,000 previously counted ballots recounted.

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However, according to the staff for the

Rush Limbaugh Show, -- who checked with the Florida governor's office -- there is no law on the books in that state that would compel Gov. Jeb Bush to file a new set of electors, regardless of the outcome of Gore's legal challenges.

"Gore is still hoping that some court will give him a competing set of electors, but he doesn't have much chance of that happening," according to

an explanatory article posted on Limbaugh's website. "There have been four times in history when duplicate sets of electors have been sent to Congress by states, and in each case, the slate that the governor certified was accepted."

In an 1870s case, State of Florida vs. Drew, a losing congressional candidate sued the governor of Florida to try to force him to certify a new election return, the article said.

"In its ruling, the Florida Supreme Court held that the governor could not be ordered by the court to submit a second election certification," said the Limbaugh report.

The report continued: "Since the governor, Jeb Bush, has already filed his certificate of ascertainment with the archivist -- and Florida legal precedent prevents state courts from ordering him to file a second certification in support of Gore's electors -- Bush wins. Whatever occurs in any court in Florida is of no legal consequence."

WorldNetDaily attempted to contact the Florida secretary of state's office, but officials there would not comment on the report.

The information has been posted on the National Archives' site and has been accepted as official by the appropriate federal agency.

"At this point, Gore's only hope is that some court somewhere will either order a recount or the use of dimpled ballots -- or maybe reject votes in a Bush-friendly county," the Limbaugh report said.

If that were to happen, analysts speculate that the Gore legal team may attempt to de-legitimize Florida's electors.

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Also confusing to some observers is the Florida legislature's earlier vow to meet this week to solidify the state's electors for George W. Bush. If Bush has already been certified as the winner of Florida's electoral votes, there would be no real need for state lawmakers to meet in special session specifically to name electors.

The Limbaugh report said the GOP-led Florida legislature may decide to meet because of what they believe was a demonstrated lack of respect for established state law on the part of the state Supreme Court.

One reason lawmakers have said they would meet "could be that the Florida Supreme Court has demonstrated that it is willing to contravene the federal constitutional authority of the state legislature," the Limbaugh report said. "Therefore, the state legislature wishes to make it clear that it alone appoints electors."

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