Florida Supreme Court rules in favour of Gore

10:15 AM

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Supreme Court has upheld an appeal by Democrat Al Gore to have some votes recounted in a key state county, keeping alive the vice president's hopes of winning the U.S. presidency.

The court ruled by a 4-3 majority that a lower court "shall immediately begin a manual recount of the approximately 9,000 Miami-Dade ballots that registered under votes," Supreme Court spokesman Craig Waters told reporters.

The court also ordered the lower court to add 215 votes for Gore from Palm Beach County and 168 additional votes from Miami-Dade county established after earlier recounts. It also told the lower court to order a manual recount of all so-called under votes, those which machines indicated voted for no presidential candidate, in any Florida county where such a recount has not yet taken place.

The ruling came less than two hours after two Florida Circuit Court judges had dealt Gore a defeat in a pair of cases involving ballots in Seminole and Martin counties.

Gore's top attorney, David Boies, had told the court the ballots, excluded from a tally declared by the Florida secretary of state to be official and final, must be recounted in order to determine the true winner of the November 7 election.

That tally put Bush ahead of Gore by 537 votes out of nearly 6 million cast and gave Bush the state's 25 electoral votes, which would make him the next president. But Bush attorney Barry Richard had urged the seven justices to uphold a lower court ruling denying a recount.

- REUTERS

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