BANGOR – It may take some time for President-elect George W. Bush to get his wish for unity among the American people after five weeks of a hotly contested election. In Maine, people of both political parties were divided over a ballot count they said was dirty.

At a Portland law firm, one lawyer who worked with the Democratic Party on its recount efforts in Florida compared the U.S. Supreme Court’s Monday night ruling to mistakes the high court has made in the past.

The national court’s decision to reverse the Florida Supreme Court’s order to hold recounts in principle is as controversial as the ruling that legally segregated whites and blacks and another that allowed for the interment of Japanese-Americans, said Anthony Buxton, former co-chairman of the Maine Democratic Party.

“The Supreme Court of the United States is a human institution,” Buxton said. “Although the ruling was morally, extraordinarily wrong, we have the duty as citizens to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Another lawyer in the same Portland law firm, Ann Robinson, also went to Florida to oversee the ballot recount. Robinson, former co-chair of Lawyers for Bush-Cheney, said the U.S. Supreme Court made the right decision in disallowing what she calls another recount.

“The ballots had been counted and recounted,” Robinson said. “It seems as though the mission was to recount as many times as necessary to give [Democratic candidate Al] Gore the victory.”

Both lawyers, who each spent between a week and 10 days in Florida during the early stages of the ballot challenge, returned to Maine with reflections of an election process that either baffled or bothered them.

Buxton, who took affidavits from voters who were dismayed that their ballots might not have been counted in West Palm Beach County, was touched by the remarks of a man in his mid-80s who suffered from arthritis.

“One fellow came along with a cane,” Buxton said. “You could tell that he once was a big, rugged man. I asked him if he wanted to give an affidavit, and he said, ‘I’m ashamed to. I was at Omaha Beach, at the Normandy invasion. I used to be a big, strong man. I don’t think I could punch my ballot … I’m ashamed because this may be my last election.’

“So when people make fun of the people of Florida who did not vote properly, I think of him,” Buxton said.

Buxton agrees that some ballots were counted, and then recounted. But, he said, to assert that all ballots were counted at least once is wrong. In Miami-Dade County, he said, there were thousands of ballots that never received a first count.

For Robinson, her irritation with the recount process came early, she said, because of the lack of standards by which to review the questionable ballots. Robinson observed recounts in two counties, including West Palm Beach.

“The standard changed at least by the day if not by the hour,” Robinson said. “Also the rhetoric about democracy in action, it was anarchy in a lot of ways because there was no standard.”

The last five weeks, she said, were not about seeking a constitutional remedy to a questionable ballot count.

“It was another campaign [by Gore],” she said.

Spokespeople for the Maine Democratic Party and the Maine Republican Party are also split on which court was correct – the Florida Supreme Court which ordered a recount or the U.S. Supreme Court which reversed that ruling.

“I think the Florida Supreme Court was partisan,” said Dwayne Bickford, a spokesman for the Maine Republican Party. “I think the U.S. Supreme Court was ideological. In the Florida Supreme Court, it was Republican versus Democrat.”

Gwethalyn Phillips, chairwoman of the Maine Democratic Party, thinks the opposite of Bickford.

“I’m very disappointed with the U.S. Supreme Court,” Phillips said. “I thought they would have come up with a better ruling, one that people would believe would be fair and just.”

Phillips said she does not know if Gore would consider running for president in 2004.

“That’s clearly up to him,” she said.

This year, though, “he did win the popular vote.”

In Bangor, Mary Drew hurried Wednesday to organize a celebration for Bush supporters. She listened throughout the day for reports on what would be Gore’s next move after the Supreme Court ruling the night before. The concession speech was forthcoming, she said, but she didn’t know when.

“I can’t wait any longer,” Drew said, less than three hours before Gore’s scheduled nationally televised speech. “We’ve waited a month already.”

Watching her candidate be put through court challenge after court challenge, Drew said, was frustrating. She said the ballot recount process should have been completed weeks ago.

“It’s exhausting,” she said. “Enough already. I want to get into the Christmas spirit. We want and deserve a [celebratory] party.”