Gore edges so close and yet ...

By RON FOURNIER

Democrats and Republicans scratched for votes across Florida as Al Gore and George W. Bush plotted their strategies for later today when the state's top elections official certifies the longest, closest White House race in 124 years.

Broward County finished its re-counting just before midnight last night, adding enough votes to help cut Bush's tissue–thin statewide lead in half, to 464 votes from 930.

In the only other county still recounting, Palm Beach, canvassers vowed to work through the night on several thousand ballots. Gore was reported by observers on both sides to have gained close to 100 more votes in the county – a disappointment to Democrats who had fading hopes the heavily Democratic county's recount would put him over the top.

As controversies erupted over a surprise cache of absentee ballots and the disparate standards for validating votes, Gore advisers said they doubted he would overtake the Texas governor before 5 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) Sunday, when Secretary of State Katherine Harris – a Republican and Bush campaigner – is supposed to certify Florida's vote totals.

Gore plans to contest some county results in state courts Monday and the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments four days later on Bush's case against recounts – meaning the nation may not know its 43rd president until legal wrangling wraps up deep in December.

Bush, too, was prepared to contest Harris' certification in the unlikely event that Gore overtakes him.

Bush's campaign filed lawsuits in five Florida counties late Saturday to force review of disputed absentee military ballots, after dropping a statewide suit.

Ben Ginsberg, a lawyer for the Bush campaign, accused Democratic attorneys of prodding some counties "to evade bipartisan calls" to count the ballots through procedural objections.

Rather than pursuing the statewide suit, he said, the campaign instead is suing individual counties "to require the electoral boards to count the signed ballots of men and women risking their lives on the front lines of America's defenses overseas."

The Gore campaign said Democrats repeatedly have said "all legally cast military ballots should be counted," spokesman Jenny Backus said.

The vice president's staff was making tentative plans for a Monday address by Gore, a senior adviser said. The speech would give the vice president a chance to explain why he was fighting the certification, they said, and set the stage for the historic clash before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The planning reflects the concern among Gore advisers that Democrats will begin to abandon their presidential candidate or the public will grow weary of the protracted legal fight.

Republicans said the Sunday deadline offers a public relations opportunity for Bush – if he still leads Gore. Whether or not Bush declares outright victory and suggests that Gore concede depends on the vote totals Sunday, a senior official said.

The U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the fiercely fought campaign Friday, agreeing to consider Bush's appeal against the hand recounting of ballots in Florida.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled last week that the recounts could continue, but set the Sunday deadline. The order allows either Bush or Gore to contest the certified totals in state circuit court.

The Gore team announced Thursday that he would challenge Harris' finding in certain counties, a move that even Bush's aides said acted to diminish the significance of her Sunday announcement.

The candidates laid low Saturday. Bush spent most of the day at his ranch in Texas and Gore went out for chocolate–chip ice cream then returned to his official residence in Washington, where a handful of demonstrators massed. "Get out of Cheney's house!" chanted Republican protesters.

Vote–counting continued in Broward and Palm Beach counties, with officials using different standards and yielding different results.

In Broward County, officials finished examining all 2,422 questionable ballots just before midnight Saturday. Gore ended with an official net gain of 567 votes.

Up the southeast coast, Palm County elections board member Carol Roberts said officials might work all night in an attempt to review 9,500 questionable ballots. The board will send partial results to the state if it fails to complete the hand count by Sunday's deadline.

With 2,000 of the ballots examined, Gore had gained between 50 and 100 votes, according to Democratic and Republican observers in Palm Beach County, a pace that angered and disappointed Democrats.

The vice president believes he is being held back in Palm Beach by officials who refuse to count ballots with indentations next to the vice president's name as votes. Broward County has adopted the Gore–friendly standard, drawing the ire of Republicans.

Gore, assuming he falls short of Bush, plans to challenge the Sunday certification, alleging that Palm Beach officials threw out too many ballots, refusing to adopt a liberal standard for determining the voters' intent, and officials in Miami–Dade County, a Democratic bastion, broke state law by shutting down its recount last week.

Gore's lawyers also contend that Palm Beach County's ballot design confused thousands of voters, including an unknown number of Democrats who say they mistakenly cast ballots for arch–conservative Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan. The Gore camp has collected 10,000 affidavits from voters who say they were confused by the ballot or given improper instructions by poll workers. Gore's lawyers have not ruled out a separate lawsuit.

One potential contest for Gore is Seminole County, near Orlando. In that heavily Republican county, the local supervisor of elections, a Republican, has acknowledged allowing Republican party officials into her office to correct errors in absentee ballot applications. Democrats did not get the same opportunity.

Republicans, out of the White House for eight years, showed no sign of wavering in the fight against Gore.

Gore is having a harder time keeping rank–and–file Democrats in line, though the party leadership has been resolute thus far.

Herald Online feature: America votes

Florida Dept. of State Division of Elections

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