Florida to Complete US Vote Recount Soon: Official

Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth said there would definitely be a recount of US presidential ballots cast in Florida and it could be completed by as early as 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) on Wednesday.

"We owe it to the country to do it as absolutely quickly as possible," Butterworth told Miami's WSVN television, a CNN and Fox affiliate.

Butterworth told NBC television that Florida law requires an automatic recount of the ballots if the candidates are within one half of one percent of each other in the polls.

US television networks - after initially projecting that Republican George W. Bush had won the US presidential election - backed off that forecast early on Wednesday after the gap between the candidates narrowed to just a few hundred votes in Florida.

It was Florida's critical 25 electoral votes which were believed to have boosted Bush's total to about the 270 required to win the presidency. Either candidate would need to win Florida's electoral votes to clinch the presidency.

"At this point in time we do not know whether or not it is Al Gore or George W. Bush who is winning the vote in Florida," Butterworth said. "But no matter which one wins, there will be an automatic recount."

Once all the votes had been counted, the recount would begin, he said, although he said some election workers might need a few hours to sleep before launching the process.

Vice President Al Gore initially called Bush to concede the race but retracted the concession about one hour later given the narrowness of the vote margin.

CNN reported that Butterworth had encouraged Gore to retract the concession because the election was too close to call.

"I think we owe it to the country to do it as quickly as possible," Butterworth told CNN affiliate WSVN.

He said the recount would be done by machines and would be supervised by election officials in each of Florida's 67 counties. It should be completed within hours, he said.

The latest figures showed a difference between the two candidates of "only about 200 votes," Butterworth said.

"I do believe that if you're coming within a few hundred votes ... the state, this country and this world must make sure that the Florida vote count is accurate and it's correct," Butterworth said.



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