Ultimate victory comes down to bench pressing

TALLAHASSEE - Lawyers were returning to a Florida court overnight to continue a legal battle over whether disputed ballots that could change the outcome of the United States presidential election should be counted.

Democrat candidate Al Gore's legal challenge to Florida's certified election tally moved slowly on through a jumble of technical testimony on voting machines, voting patterns and even on the properties of rubber as an army of lawyers representing Gore, Republican George W. Bush, state and local officials and Florida voters jammed a third-floor courtroom of the Leon County Courthouse in Tallahassee.

At stake in the trial, which recessed after nearly nine hours and was to resume at 9 am local time on Sunday (3 am today New Zealand time), are Florida's 25 Electoral College votes, which will be enough to crown a winner in the November 7 presidential election.

Bush was certified the winner in Florida by 537 votes last Monday, a decision immediately challenged by Gore, whose lawyers are racing against a December 12 deadline to appoint state presidential electors for the Electoral College that meets on December 18 to officially choose the President.

Gore hopes to win a speedy recount of more than 10,000 disputed ballots that will provide him enough votes to overtake Bush's lead in the state and claim the White House. The Vice-President contends that potentially thousands of votes for him were never counted because of faulty voting machines. He is seeking to have them hand counted.

Both Gore and Bush need Florida's Electoral College votes to reach the national total of 270 required to win the White House.

While Gore's lawyers attempted to persuade a Florida county judge to order a recount of disputed ballots from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, Bush was pushing ahead with his transition plans in Texas in the belief that he will be confirmed the election winner.

Bush and his party's leaders in Congress met over hamburgers to plan for the legislative session that begins in January.

The Texas Governor welcomed Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois to his 648ha property near the tiny town of Crawford and allowed cameras and reporters to record their arrival.

The Texas Governor said he wanted to focus on his $US1.3 trillion ($ 3.21 trillion) tax cut plan "particularly given the fact that there's some warning signs on the horizon about our economy."

"There are some indications of a potential slowdown," he said, citing the automobile industry and high energy prices.

The Florida court session came after the US Supreme Court on Saturday waded into a presidential election for the first time in history, quizzing lawyers about whether the Florida Supreme Court exceeded its authority in a unanimous ruling two weeks ago that extended the deadline for recounting presidential votes by hand in Florida.

There was no indication when the court would finish but both sides expect a ruling by the middle of this week.

- REUTERS

Herald Online feature: America votes

The US Electoral College

Florida Dept. of State Division of Elections

Supreme Court of Florida

Supreme Court of the United States

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