Lawyers for the two presidential candidates were set for second day of courtroom wrangling Sunday, with Al Gore's lawyers racing against the clock to get thousands of disputed votes counted.
Gore believes that a recount of the 13,300 votes from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties would give him a Florida victory and the keys to the White House.
Attorneys for Gore's Republican rival George W. Bush, who vehemently opposes the recount plan, ripped the request apart during Saturday's hearing at a court in the Florida capital Tallahassee.
Leon County Circuit Judge Sanders Sauls could rule on Sunday on the request, which is central to Gore's contest of results that gave Bush a 537-vote lead in the November 7 presidential election in Florida.
Should he grant it, Bush lawyers want him to order recounts in two other counties, where they claim vote counters used arbitrary standards in determining voter intent in ballots where the candidates' mark were not properly punched through.
With several other trials pending, the Gore camp was frantically endeavored to beat the December 12 deadline for the appointment of Florida's slate to the Electoral College that names the president.
"Every hour counts, every minute counts, but I think we are on track," Gore lawyer David Boies said after the Tallahassee hearing.
Republicans in the Florida legislature have warned that if the electors are not named in time, they could do the selection themselves. Since Republicans dominate both the House and the Senate, they would be sure to pick Bush supporters.
Under the US system, the winner of the popular vote in a given state is awarded a slate of electors equivalent to the number of lawmakers that state has in the US Congress. Florida's 25 electors will determine who gets the 270 votes needed to win the presidency.
Who becomes the 43rd US president also could be decided at either of two trials scheduled to start here on Wednesday, almost a month to the day after the elections.
Democratic activists filed the lawsuits seeking to have 25,000 ballots be thrown out because Republicans allegedly tampered with absentee ballot applications in two counties.
In both cases, the plaintiffs want all the absentee votes cast out, as it is impossible to link the contested forms with specific ballots.
A victory for the plaintiffs would give Gore more than enough votes to cruise to victory.
The Bush camp, on the other hand, could benefit from a Florida Supreme Court case filed by Republican voter Matt Butler, who claims manual recounts that were conducted in several counties -- and that boosted Gore's showing -- were unfair and unconstitutional.
In Washington, the US Supreme court was yet to rule in a case brought by Bush, who claims the Florida justices had overstepped their mandate in ordering that the original Florida results should be amended to reflect hand recounts completed by November 21.
Meanwhile, Americans' patience was wearing thin. A Newsweek survey showed that the percentage of people who support the legal process has dropped from 72 percent two weeks ago to just 52 percent this week - WASHINGTON (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
