Electoral authorities in Florida said early Sunday they had completed their manual recount of ballots cast in Palm Beach County in the US presidential election, with results to be announced within the hour.
The hand count began Saturday, despite a lawsuit filed by Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush seeking to block the Palm Beach recount and manual recounts in three other Florida counties.
The four manual recounts were requested by the Democratic campaign, which hopes that the results will tilt the presidential election to Al Gore, Bush's Democratic challenger.
Bush adviser James Baker essentially urged Gore to concede defeat -- even though the Republican candidate only had a razor-thin advantage over his rival.
"Based on the results, we urged the Gore campaign to accept the finality of the election," he said Saturday at a news conference in the Florida capital, Tallahassee. He said this would remain subject to the counting of overseas ballots that must be received by Friday.
Even as Baker spoke, officials were tallying votes in Volusia county and in some parts of Palm Beach.
Gore's campaign responded by calling on Bush to withdraw the lawsuit.
"We call upon the Bush campaign to withdraw the litigation they have filed today," said Gore adviser Warren Christopher, who, like Baker, is a former secretary of state.
The lawsuit filed by the Bush campaign claims manual recounts are unnecessary, arbitrary and unreliable.
It argues that "the incentives for favoritism or worse -- in the hopes that a small swing of votes could determine the president -- are grossly magnified in a manual recount where individual counters have direct and subjective contact with the ballots."
"There is no allegation of voter fraud, or of coercion or corruption. There is thus no basis for further recounts," Bush, his running-mate Dick Cheney and seven voters claim in the suit.
A statewide automated recount has already been conducted after Tuesday's presidential election because of the narrow difference between the two candidates in Florida.
The lawsuit, filed before the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, notably claims that manual recounts allowed for "subjective interpretation of voters' intents."
It referred specifically to ballots where the mark corresponding to a candidate was partially punched, or where voters punched two holes instead of a single one.
"One electoral board may decide to count votes that are not fully punched, another may not. One electoral board may decide that a stray mark indicated an intent to vote for a particular candidate, another may not," said Baker.
Several other lawsuits have been filed by individuals in Palm Beach County, amid claims voters were confused by the layout of the ballot, which had Gore's name directly below Bush's, but the punch hole for Reform party Pat Buchanan's in between.
Speaking at his ranch near Waco, Texas, Bush said he would be prepared to withdraw the lawsuit, "depending upon Vice President Gore's campaign's decisions."
In his weekly radio address, President Bill Clinton appealed to Americans to be patient.
"The important thing for all of us to remember now is that a process for resolving the discrepancies and the challenges to the election is in motion. The rest of us need to be patient and wait for the results," Clinton said.
Amid the wrangling, it became increasingly likely a winner would not be declared for another week.
Media reports said the statewide recount showed that Bush had a 327-vote lead. But official results with 66 of the 67 counties counted gave Bush a 961-vote advantage, Florida electoral officials said late Friday.
Gore campaign chairman William Daley, expressed confidence in a victory by the Democratic candidate. "We strongly believe at the end of this process that Al Gore will win the Florida vote," he said.
Whoever wins Florida will get 25 electoral votes, which would likely give him a winning margin in the presidential election, with Bush already holding 246 votes and Gore 262. A candidate needs 270 of the 538 votes in the Electoral College to win the presidency.
In another twist that could further complicate the issue, Miami police said Saturday that two boxes holding uncounted ballots had been found.
Meanwhile, two opinion polls -- by Time/CNN and by Newsweek -- due out on Monday show that Americans believe the fairness and accuracy of the Florida votes is more important than obtaining an immediate result -- WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
