A court ruling that the results of all recounts in Florida had to be completed by 5 p.m. yesterday have increased the chances of Governor George W. Bush becoming the next president.
The ruling was a huge setback to the Gore campaign, which had expected that Judge Terry Lewis would set aside the deadline. The Gore team was expected to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.
The Gore campaign was hoping that the recounts in four counties, if allowed to continue, would produce enough new votes for Vice-President Al Gore to win Florida and its 25 electoral college votes. It will now be impossible for those counties recounting to meet the deadline but they may keep counting in the hope that late returns might yet be accepted by the election board in the state capital of Tallahassee.
After the election-night count in Florida, Mr Bush was leading by 1,784 votes done by machine count, but as hand recounts proceeded in selected counties this lead was being whittled away to fewer than 400 votes.
There have been widespread complaints that thousands of Gore voters were misled by the ballot paper in Palm Beach County and voted for the Reform Party candidate, Mr Pat Buchanan by mistake. Up to 20,000 ballot papers were declared invalid because people voted twice.
Neither Mr Bush nor Mr Gore can be elected president without winning Florida. On election night the TV networks first said that Mr Gore had won Florida and then reversed themselves later and said Mr Bush would definitely win it, and Mr Gore conceded in a phone call. An hour later the networks said it was too close to call.
Before the court ruling yesterday, the Gore campaign had rejected an offer by Mr James Baker, who represents Mr Bush at the Florida recounts, that both sides would drop all pending legal actions and accept the results of any recounts by the 5 p.m. deadline. Otherwise, Mr Baker said, "When is it going to end? I ask you, when is it going to end?"
But within an hour the Gore campaign chairman, Mr William Daly, dismissed the Baker proposal, saying it was "an inaccurate description of the laws of Florida. I think we've got to not try to usurp the courts of Florida."
The recount situation had become extremely confused by yesterday, with court actions proliferating in the four counties where recounts or attempted recounts were taking place.
But over all the legal actions hung the decision by the Florida secretary of state, Ms Katherine Harris, made on Monday that no results would be accepted after 5 p.m. yesterday from counties which were still carrying out hand counts. She said this was in accordance with Florida electoral law.
This was seen as favouring Mr Bush, who is still believed to be ahead of Mr Gore after a machine recount for the whole of Florida and partial recounts in some contested counties. According to Associated Press, Mr Bush's lead was a slender 388 votes out of about six million cast on election day on November 7th.
Ms Harris, who was co-chair of the Bush campaign in Florida and is accused of bias by the Gore campaign, also ruled that outstanding overseas ballots could still be counted up to Friday of this week, so a definitive result for Florida cannot be available until then.
The Bush camp hopes that most of these overseas votes will be by Republicans serving in the armed forces. But the Gore campaign points out that an important number of these votes may come from Israel, where Jewish Democrats are living.
Meanwhile, two polls published yesterday show that the American public is not yet too concerned by the unprecedented delay in electing their president.
In a Washington Post/ABC News poll, 52 per cent said they were "not worried", 28 per cent were "somewhat worried" and 19 per cent were "very worried".
Asked if Mr Gore and Mr Bush should accept the result of the recount in Florida even if they think it is unfair, 67 per cent said they should accept it and 28 per cent said the issue should go to the courts.
A New York Times/CBS poll asked what voters thought about the discrepancy between the popular vote and the electoral college vote which actually elects the president. Mr Gore is at present ahead in the popular vote by 218,386 votes but would lose in the electoral college if Mr Bush wins Florida.
Asked when there is a conflict who has a more legitimate claim to the Presidency, 45 per cent said the popular-vote winner and 39 per cent the electoral-vote winner. Among Gore voters 63 per cent plumped for the popular-vote winner. Among Bush voters 67 per cent said the electoral-vote winner had the more legitimate claim.
Under the US Constitution the electoral-vote winner becomes president, regardless of the popular vote.
Reuters adds: The Gore campaign said yesterday that Judge Lewis's ruling meant election officials had to consider counts reported after the deadline.
Judge Lewis had earlier upheld a 5 p.m. deadline for a recount of Florida's presidential votes. Other returns were accepted after this deadline at the discretion of state election officials.
The former US secretary of state, Mr Warren Christopher, speaking for the Gore campaign, put a positive interpretation on what had appeared to be a Bush victory.
"Under this decision we now have a vehicle for the full, fair and accurate tabulation of the votes for the citizens of Florida," he said.