Electoral storm hits Palm Beach

Ballots are unloaded for hand counting

By Jon Leyne in Palm Beach

It has become known locally as the satellite park, and it has become the latest tourist attraction in the Florida resort of Palm Beach.

Every day dozens of onlookers come to gawp at the field of television trucks, microphones and satellite dishes parked outside the Palm Beach County Emergency Operations Centre.

The placard reads: "How Al Gore stole the votes"

This nondescript grey building is really designed for dealing with the hurricanes that regularly batter this otherwise idyllic corner of America.

Sometimes, however, the media stake-out does bear a resemblance to some awful death watch, with television and radio crews waiting for news of survivors of some terrible disaster.

Vocal demonstrations

But, fortunately, this is not a body count, just a vote count.

Inside, officials laboriously tally by hand the 460,000-odd votes cast in this most bitterly contested election, while an army of lawyers and party activists mounts a series of ever-more bizarre challenges.

Storms often put Palm Beach in the spotlight

The latest claim is that the Democrats have been eating the chads, the tiny bits of card that get punched out of the ballot paper when the voting machine registers your intentions.

Outside it is the Bush supporters who have been mounting the most vocal demonstrations.

Crazy eccentrics

"Sore Loserman!", is their latest chant, mocking the Gore-Lieberman Democratic ticket.

A busker sings a song he has composed in praise of George W Bush, while a plane flies past with a banner urging Al Gore to give up the fight.

Here in West Palm Beach they are a little worried that the world has them labelled as a bunch of millionaires and doddery retirees, not to mention crazy eccentrics.

There are certainly plenty of seniors here, but the real rich people are over on Palm Beach island.

West Palm Beach is more of a normal kind of place, locals insist - at least it was until this circus came to town.