A judge was to rule Tuesday on whether to scrap a deadline for recounting votes in Florida, which both Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush agree could decide the disputed presidential election.
Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis was expected to rule around 10:30 a.m. (1530 GMT) on Gore supporters' legal challenge to a decision by the state's top election official to halt recounts by 5:00 p.m. (2200 GMT) Tuesday.
A decision to dump Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris' deadline would be a victory for the vice president's camp, which hopes manual recounts in four heavily Democratic counties will show he won the state's 25 Electoral College votes and hence the White House.
But both sides expected Lewis' ruling to be merely an early skirmish in what could flare up into all-out legal war between the contenders, and that the loser would almost certainly appeal to a higher court.
"If the judge moves the five o'clock deadline ... we're in for the long haul," said Bob Crawford, a Democratic member of the state's canvassing board who voted for Bush.
"The American people want this drama to come to a fair conclusion," he said.
In a bid to stave off further confrontation, the Gore camp was eyeing a deal calling for a manual recount in all 67 Florida counties if the Republicans drop a legal effort to block that process in areas expected to favor Gore, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The vice president's camp would also agree not to challenge the so-called "butterfly ballot" in Palm Beach county, which Democrats are claiming confused voters and may have skewed the results in the crucial state.
Top Gore aides told US television they were unaware of such a plan but did not rule out such a solution.
"Our whole context here is to have a full, fair and accurate count of the ballots, and so we wouldn't rule out consideration of anything that provided for a more accurate and full count," said former secretary of state Warren Christopher, Gore's top legal strategist in Florida.
Bush officials were divided over the plan, the daily said, with one senior Bush aide saying it could be "a real option," while another rejecting it because it conflicted with Bush's current position that manual counts are unreliable.
Meanwhile, Palm Beach County, ground zero for the controversy, decided to suspend a manual recount after Harris issued an opinion that it would be improper.
Harris on Monday declared that she would ignore any vote tallies that come in after the Tuesday deadline, angering Gore supporters who said manual recounts could not be completed by then.
Christopher tarred that ruling as "both arbitrary and unreasonable" and all but accused her of trying to fix the fight for Bush, whose younger brother Jeb governs the state.
The Bush campaign suffered its own setback Monday when a federal judge in Miami rejected its plea to block manual recounts.
Apart from Palm Beach, which suspended its recount, two other Florida counties were handling vote recount requests: Miami-Dade was to decide shortly whether to proceed, and Volusia County had asked for more time to complete its recount.
Broward County late Monday decided not to hold a full manual vote recount after a sampling count of almost 4,000 votes -- out of a 534,000 -- showed a mere four-vote difference for Gore, local officials said.
But Democratic Party officials said they would appeal that decision Tuesday in a Broward County court.
Meanwhile, Republicans were considering whether to mount a legal challenge in the state of Wisconsin over alleged voter fraud after as many as 141 local students admitted voting more than once, ABC News reported.
The incident occurred at Marquette University in heavily Democratic Milwaukee, and the local district attorney was investigating the case, the network said.
One student who appeared on camera but refused to give his name said he had voted four times.
Gore was ahead of Bush in Wisconsin by about 6,000 votes.
If the Florida recount continues, Bush's team has threatened to challenge vote counts in several other states where the tally in last Tuesday's election was extremely close and where a review might benefit him.
In Washington, Gore used the White House as a backdrop to urge Florida officials to "spend the days necessary" to ensure that a clear victor emerges.
"I would not want to win the presidency by a few votes cast in error, or misinterpreted or not counted, and I don't think Governor Bush wants that either," he said.
The Bush campaign reacted immediately by accusing the vice president of trying "to ignore the law" covering elections in Florida.
"Vice President Gore's campaign simply wants to keep counting votes until they like the results," said campaign spokeswoman Karen Hughes.
Despite the legal wrangling, Americans appear to have taken the election stalemate in their stride, according to a New York Times/CBS News opinion poll.
Sixty percent of those polled said they were not worried about the situation, and a majority were confident their own votes were counted properly -- TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
