The Florida Supreme Court will today hear arguments from lawyers for Vice-President Al Gore and Governor George W. Bush about recounts before making a ruling that could decide the presidential election. It is not known when the court will give its judgment.
Both candidates are claiming victory in Florida as the country waits with increasing impatience to know who will be the next president.
A Newsweek poll shows that the number who say it is "more important to end the process" has risen in a week from 25 per cent to 36 per cent. However, 61 per cent say it is more important to have a result that is fair and accurate.
If the court accepts the Gore legal team argument that the results of continuing hand recounts must be included, the final result in Florida may be delayed for another two weeks. But if the court rules that these recounts should not be included, Mr Bush would be immediately declared the winner in Florida.
The winner in Florida with its 25 electoral college votes will reach the 270 electoral votes needed to be declared the next president in the closest election in modern times. Mr Gore leads by about 215,000 in the nationwide popular vote but, according to the constitution, it is the candidate with a majority of electoral votes on a state-by-state basis who becomes president.
Mr Bush leads in Florida by 930 votes, according to figures announced by the Florida Secretary of State, Ms Katherine Harris, a Republican activist who refused to allow hand recounts. But she has been prevented by the court from officially declaring Mr Bush the winner until the seven judges, all appointed by Democratic governors, rule on whether hand recounts are to be taken into account.
Ms Harris had intended to certify Mr Bush the winner last Saturday on the basis of his narrow 300-vote lead over Mr Bush following a state-wide machine recount added to the results of the outstanding overseas ballots. Mr Bush won these votes, mainly from military personnel, by almost two to one and boosted his lead to 930.
But Mr Gore still hopes that he will pick up enough new votes from the hand recounts in three Florida counties where he and his running mate, Senator Joseph Lieberman, had substantial wins in the November 7th election. Palm Beach and Broward Counties are already well into their hand recounts, but Mr Gore is picking up new votes at a much slower rate than his supporters had hoped.
Miami-Dade, the state's biggest county, did a third machine count of over 600,000 votes yesterday to prepare for the hand recount which officials estimate could last until the end of the month.
President Clinton, who is ending a historic visit to Vietnam, said that no matter who wins the election, the American people may benefit by the closeness of the contest. "It might be sobering for the country to realise that we are in a completely new era," Mr Clinton said in a CNN interview. "It is still clear that about two-thirds of the people want a dynamic centre that pulls the people together and moves us forward."
The counting of the 3,350 overseas ballots in Florida has led to strong complaints from the Bush campaign that Democratic officials wrongly disqualified 1,420 votes for technical reasons such as no postmark. Mr Bush gained 1,380 votes to Mr Gore's 750 from these ballots received since election day.
The Bush campaign charged that the Gore camp had instructed Democratic officials "to discredit military electors". The Republicans released a statement by retired Gen Norman Schwarzkopf, commander in the Gulf War, that it was "a sad day" when military personnel were denied their right to vote because of a technicality.
Mr Lieberman appeared on the defensive on this issue when he was interviewed on several TV shows yesterday. "If they have the capacity, I'd urge them [the vote-counters] to go back and take another look," he said.
Tensions are reported to be surfacing at the various recounts
as party activists make counteraccusations. Republicans are complaining about ballot cards being damaged in the recounting and of Bush votes being put in the wrong pile and even that one Democratic counter was seen swallowing "chads", the small pieces that are punched out of the ballot cards.
Democrats are complaining that the Bush campaign observers are slowing up the recounts by overzealous protests. Some counters have refused to continue, saying that the count is wearing them out.