531US1 120 Unit: $$U9 [05-01-02 10:02:37] PAGES PGT: OPIN BUSH v. GORE Rehnquist, C. J., concurring although it must defer to the Secretary’s interpretations, see Krivanek v. Take Back Tampa Political Committee, 625 So. 2d 840, 844 (Fla. 1993), rejected her reasonable interpretation and embraced the peculiar one. See Palm Beach County Canvassing Bd. v. Harris, 772 So. 2d 1273 (2000) (Harris III). But as we indicated in our remand of the earlier case, in a Presidential election the clearly expressed intent of the legislature must prevail. And there is no basis for reading the Florida statutes as requiring the counting of improperly marked ballots, as an examination of the Florida Supreme Court’s textual analysis shows. We will not parse that analysis here, except to note that the principal provision of the Election Code on which it relied, § 101.5614(5), was, as Chief Justice Wells pointed out in his dissent in Gore v. Harris, 772 So. 2d 1243, 1267 (2000) (Harris II), entirely irrelevant. The State’s Attorney General (who was supporting the Gore challenge) confirmed in oral argument here that never before the present election had a manual recount been conducted on the basis of the contention that “undervotes” should have been examined to determine voter intent. Tr. of Oral Arg. in Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Bd., O. T. 2000, No. 00–836, pp. 39–40; cf. Broward County Canvassing Board v. Hogan, 607 So. 2d 508, 509 (Fla. Ct. App. 1992) (denial of recount for failure to count ballots with “hanging paper chads”). For the court to step away from this established practice, prescribed by the Secretary, the state official charged by the legislature with “responsibility to . . . [o]btain and maintain uniformity in the application, operation, and interpretation of the election laws,” § 97.012(1), was to depart from the legislative scheme. III The scope and nature of the remedy ordered by the Florida Supreme Court jeopardizes the “legislative wish” to take