The campaign of George W Bush has dismissed as "unconstitutional" the decision by the Electoral Authorities in West Palm Beach in Florida to order a full hand recount of election votes. The former US secretary of state, James Baker, who is a special legal advisor to the Republican candidate, said that the Bush camp would proceed with its legal challenge to have the hand count outlawed. The result of the Florida re-counts should determine which of the two candidates becomes the next president of the United States, although a final outcome is still not expected until the end of next week.
The call for a full hand count of the county was made after a hand recount showed that Vice President Al Gore, for the Democrats, received 19 more votes compared to the original count, which was done by machine. The board recounted more than 4,500 ballots by hand that were cast during the presidential election on Tuesday.
The Democrats had said that if the sample hand count yielded additional votes for Mr Gore, they would seek to have all the votes in the county counted by hand. They asked for hand recounts in four large Democratic-leaning counties where there were voter complaints and concerns about the integrity of the computer-count. Democratic officials hoped a recount in those areas would produce enough votes for Vice President Al Gore to claim Florida's 25 electoral votes and win the US presidential election. Legal challenges by the Republicans against a manual recount are expected to be put before the Courts tomorrow.
Campaign managers for Al Gore have called on Mr Bush to withdraw the legal action. In another development, police have taken possession of two ballot boxes, which were discovered in pro-Democratic areas of Miami yesterday.
