Vice-President Al Gore has challenged Governor George Bush's certified win in Florida, which has set him on the road to the White House.
In a live TV address early this morning he called for a "complete count" of all votes cast for president in Florida and decried what he said were efforts to stall the process of tallying ballots.
"I have decided to contest this inaccurate and incomplete count in order to ensure the greatest possible credibility for the outcome," he said.
As Mr Bush went ahead with arrangements for his transition to the presidency, Mr Gore's lawyers were filing his legal challenge at a circuit court in Tallahassee, the Florida state capital. But pressure is building for Mr Gore to end the legal battle and concede.
In a telephone conference call from the vice-presidential residence in Washington, Mr Gore said: "What we're talking about regards many thousands of votes that have never been counted at all. If we ignore the votes that have been cast, then where does that lead? The integrity of our democracy depends on the consent of the governed."
Anxious to ensure the support of senior Democrats as he challenges Mr Bush's election, Mr Gore sent the two Democratic leaders in Congress, Senator Tom Daschle and Congressman Dick Gephardt, to Tallahassee to argue his case with the media. An overnight Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 60 per cent of those surveyed believed Mr Gore should now concede the election; 35 per cent said he should not.
Mr Bush was certified the official winner in Florida on Sunday night with a narrow 537-vote lead over Mr Gore out of six million votes cast. This result entitles Mr Bush to Florida's 25 electoral college votes, which would give him a majority of the electoral votes nationally, and he would be elected president.
But the Gore lawyers in their brief filed yesterday asked the Florida court to "certify that the true and accurate results of the 2000 presidential election in Florida" show the Gore-Lieberman ticket as the winner. "The vote totals reported in the election canvassing commission's certification of November 26th, 2000 are wrong," the Gore lawyers argued.
"They include illegal votes and do not include legal votes that were improperly rejected. The number of such votes is more than sufficient to place in doubt, indeed to change, the result of the election," the Gore lawyers said. The challenges concern voting in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Nassau counties. The Gore lawyers claim thousands of votes for Mr Gore were not counted.
Mr Bush's lawyers have 10 days to respond to the Gore challenge but are expected to file papers sooner. The court could begin hearing witnesses and taking evidence today.
Meanwhile, in Austin, the Bush campaign went ahead with transition plans. Mr Bush said on Sunday night that he had asked his running mate, Mr Dick Cheney, "to work with President Clinton's administration to open a transition office in Washington. And we look forward to a constructive working relationship throughout this transition."
But the White House has said that it is not possible for the official transition funding and offices in Washington to be handed over to Mr Bush or Mr Gore until the legal situation in Florida is clarified. Mr Bush could continue to receive national security briefings, the White House spokesman said.
Mr Andrew Card who has been named chief of staff to Mr Bush said in Austin yesterday, "We may just open our own transition office. We know how important it is to keep moving."