Authorities in Florida called Sunday for a manual recount of all votes cast in a key county in the US presidential election after the reexamination of a small portion of ballots there yielded a net gain for Vice President Al Gore.
A manual recount of just one percent of Palm Beach County's 41,000 votes resulted in a 19-vote net gain for Gore, according to Carol Roberts, the county commissioner and one of three members of the county's electoral commission.
A manual recount of all the votes logically therefore had the potential to alter the original, machine-counted outcome by 19,000 votes, enough to warrant the recount by hand of all ballots cast in the county, Roberts told reporters.
"Given the importance of the election .... I believe the people of Palm Beach County have entrusted us with the power to voice their right to participate in their government."
"This clearly would have affected the results of the national election," she said.
The decision to move ahead with a county-wide manual recount came about 15 hours after Gore's opponent, Texas Governor George W. Bush, filed a lawsuit in an effort to block any further recounting of ballots by hand.
James Baker, the former US secretary of state now handling legal issues surrounding the campaign for Bush, argued that manual recounts in fact jeopardize rather than enhance the fairness and accuracy of the vote count.
Palm Beach County electoral authorities have scheduled a meeting for Monday to discuss details of how to proceed in the vote recount.
A judge was scheduled at around the same time to decide whether or not to grant the Bush campaign's effort to stop any further manual recounts.
The limited manual vote recount already completed in Palm Beach County resulted in 33 additional votes for Gore and 14 for Bush -- a net gain of 19 for Gore -- WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
