Bush clings to slim lead

TALLAHASSEE - Republican candidate George W. Bush's lead dwindled yesterday to just 300 votes in Florida - the state which will decide the next US president - after a tense state recount. But with more votes possibly in the pipeline Democrat Al Gore was still in the game.

Katherine Harris, the state's top elections official and a prominent Bush supporter, gave the two counties planning a manual recount or considering one until this morning, New Zealand time, to make their case for possibly amending the tally. Both lean Democratic.

In addition, an undetermined number of overseas ballots have until Friday to reach officials for inclusion in the count on which the leadership of the world's most powerful nation hinges.

In opening the door to more recounts, Harris, Florida's Secretary of State, backed off her earlier insistence that 11 am (NZT) yesterday was the deadline for Florida's 67 counties to report.

A state judge, ruling earlier yesterday on a Democratic challenge to the deadline, said it should stand but Harris should use her discretion on handling late returns.

Harris said in a brief announcement in the state capital of Tallahassee that Bush had 2,910,492 votes and Gore had 2,910,192 after a recount in all the counties.

After the first count following the November 7 presidential election, Bush was leading Gore by 1784 votes, a narrow margin which automatically triggered a mandatory recount.

Harris also gave counties planning or considering hand recounts less than a day to explain in writing their reasons for going ahead.

Palm Beach County was to begin its recount yesterday and Broward County was to decide whether to go ahead.

Miami-Dade, the state's most populous county, said yesterday that it would not proceed with a full hand recount after a partial one of nearly 6000 votes showed a net gain of only six votes for Gore and no change in Bush's total.

"I'm requiring a written statement of the facts and circumstances that would cause these counties to believe that a change should be made before the final certification of the statewide vote," Harris told reporters.

"This written statement is due in our office by 2 pm tomorrow [8 am NZT today]," she said.

She said that unless she was persuaded that the figures she had just announced should be amended, they would stand.

"Subsequently, the overseas ballots that are due by midnight Friday [6 pm NZT Saturday] will also be certified and the final results of the election for President of the United States of America in the state of Florida will be announced."

Her position came at the end of another dramatic day one week after US voters had gone to the polls to elect their 43rd President.

Democrats had urged Harris to extend the deadline to allow laborious hand recounts to take place. But, in a gesture which Democrats took as helping their cause, Judge Terry Lewis said Harris was not definitively bound by the deadline and still had the discretion to accept late votes.

Winning Florida's 25 electoral votes will swing either candidate above the 270 votes required by the Electoral College to win the White House.

The recount in Florida was ordered under state law amid allegations of widespread irregularities and flaws in the voting system which Gore supporters say could have cost them hundreds, if not thousands, of votes.

Still unknown was the result of overseas ballots and although political analysts have speculated that they might favour Bush, there was no guarantee.

The Democrat camp said the vote count showed the margin between Bush and Gore was narrowing.

- REUTERS

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