The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that Palm Beach County can proceed with a hand recount of US presidential ballots. In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled that there was no legal impediment to the recounts continuing. The ruling is seen as a victory for Democratic candidate, Al Gore, and a setback for his Republican rival, George W Bush, who is fighting a legal battle to block hand counts.
Republican Secretary of State in Florida, Katherine Harris, also wants to exclude these recounts from the final vote tally in the state. A state judge is to rule in the morning on a Democratic challenge to her decision not to include them.
The Florida vote will decide the election. The Democrats filed a motion in a court in Tallahassee seeking to enforce an earlier ruling that Ms Harris "cannot act in an arbitrary or unreasonable manner" in deciding whether to include ballots recounted by hand.
Ms Harris, a Republican, said yesterday that she would refuse to accept the results of a manual recount of ballots in three counties which had been requested by Democrats. She told reporters that the counties had not provided sufficient evidence to justify their request. The campaign of Al Gore believes that a recount could overturn George W Bush's 300-vote lead in the state. They described Ms Harris' decision as "rash and precipitous". Ms Harris also said that Florida's election results would be finalised on Saturday, once overseas ballots have been counted.
Between 2,000 and 4,000 overseas ballots are expected to be counted, according to unofficial estimates. A projection by the St Petersburg Times in Florida indicates 2,000 to 2,500 votes might still need to be counted by the Friday midnight deadline. The newspaper said that if they fall in line with those counted on Election Day, about 59% of the votes would go to the Republican candidate. At present, the official Florida tally of nearly six million votes gives a lead of 300 to George W Bush.
A federal appellate panel in Atlanta, Georgia, is set to hear arguments from the Bush campaign to halt manual recounts on federal grounds in several Florida counties. This follows the decision of Florida Supreme Court to turn down a petition by Ms Harris to block manual recounts and consolidate the blizzard of lawsuits stemming from contested tallies throughout the state.
A state circuit court judge has ruled that the canvassing board in Palm Beach County is not required to reject ballots that display a dimpled "chad," the detachable paper tab in a punch card, saying that election officials had to use their judgement. That case may yet be heard in the state Supreme Court as well. Finally, a judge in Palm Beach County has set a hearing for Friday on a lawsuit filed by Gore supporters seeking a new election in the county, claiming that a confusing "butterfly" ballot skewed the results. This lawsuit is not officially endorsed by the Gore campaign.
Earlier, Vice President Gore said that he would drop all legal challenges and accept the final result in Florida if it included the outcome of manual recounts. Mr Gore also said that he wanted to hold direct talks with his Republican rival. However, Governor Bush rejected the proposal, saying that manual recounts were neither fair nor accurate. He also rejected Mr Gore's idea of an immediate meeting, but said that he would be glad to meet the Vice President once the election was concluded.
