Bush leads as Florida count goes on

Democrats say these demonstrators are wrong

Republican George W Bush is leading Democrat Al Gore by just 300 votes in Florida, the US state which is likely to decide the outcome of the presidential election.

As she announced the figures, the state's chief election official, Katherine Harris, gave three counties until 1400 (1700 GMT) on Wednesday to appeal for more time to continue a manual recount, which could narrow the gap between the candidates even further.

If they go forward, these Democratic counties are no longer recounting, they are reinventing.

Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes

She was speaking after a court-backed deadline for the return of results from all 67 Florida counties expired.

The Bush team accused counties conducting recounts of "reinventing" the election result, while Mr Gore's supporters said the Republicans were trying to obstruct attempts to determine the will of the people.

Correspondents say the recounts give Mr Gore a glimmer of hope, after unofficial results of a manual recount in Volusia County filed just before the deadline showed a slight swing to the vice-president.

Florida vote

Bush - 2,910,492

Gore - 2,910,192

But Ms Harris, a Republican, said she would certify the existing results without waiting for late results from other counties if the reasons given for the recounts were not strong enough.

She added that Florida's final result would be announced after the deadline for receiving overseas ballots this Friday.

Legal tussles

The BBC's correspondent in Florida's state capital, Tallahassee, says the Republicans expect the overseas ballots to boost Mr Bush's majority.

Many of the absentee ballots have been cast by military personnel, who tend to vote Republican.

Florida count

Bush leads by 300

Legal challenges

Republicans will appeal against ruling allowing hand counts

Private Democratic voters appeal over "butterfly" ballots

Deadlines

Counties continuing recounts must justify their actions by 1400 (1900 GMT)

Postal votes must be in by Friday

Electoral college vote 17 December

Inauguration 20 January

Mr Gore can expect to pick up further votes from the recount of 460,000 votes in Palm Beach county which starts on Wednesday

But in a blow to the vice-president Florida's most populous county, Miami-Dade, ruled out a full hand recount late on Tuesday.

The county canvassing board voted 2-1 against a full handcount after a sample hand count of nearly 6,000 votes in three precincts produced a net gain of only six votes for Al Gore and no change in George W Bush's total.

Bush campaign spokeswoman Karen Hughes underlined that all counts so far had shown a victory for Mr Bush, and questioned how long the recounting could legitimately continue.

"This chaotic manual count in selective counties with no uniform standards cannot produce a fair and accurate count of the votes in Florida," she said.

Al Gore's campaign manager, Bill Daley, said the Bush camp and Ms Harris were engaging in a variety of tactics to block or slow the count.

"It is time to end these tactics and move ahead with what we all want, which is a timely count of their votes," he said.

Late arrivals

Earlier, a state court judge refused to grant a Democrat request to overturn a 1700 (2200 GMT) deadline imposed by Ms Harris for results to be filed.

Also on Tuesday, the Republicans said they would ask an appeal court in Atlanta to intervene to stop hand counting.

The Democrats called for hand votes in four counties because they say mechanical counters cannot judge voting intentions in cases where voters failed to punch clean holes in the ballot paper.

In a separate legal challenge, Palm Beach Democrat voters are seeking a new vote because of objections to an allegedly confusing ballot paper, known as the butterfly ballot, used in the county.

Other states

They say thousands of Gore voters either mistakenly voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan or spoiled their paper trying to correct their error.

I'm requiring a written statement of the facts and circumstances that would cause these counties to believe that a change should be made

Katherine Harris

Democrats have warned that they will challenge Ms Harris in court if she "abritarily" dismisses the results of a recount.

While the world's attention was focused on Florida, other electoral dramas were being played out in states that could still have a bearing on the result.

A recount in the south-western state of New Mexico, which Mr Gore won narrowly in the first vote, has also been had a troubled week.

A recount at one point gave Mr Bush the lead by a mere 21 votes out of some 570,000 cast, but officials have discovered an error worth 500 votes to Al Gore.

The Republicans were also threatening to challenge apparent victories by Mr Gore in the mid-western states of Wisconsin, Iowa and the north-western state of Oregon. Mr Gore led in all by some 6,000 votes or less.