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Florida County Orders Hand Recount of All Votes
Election officials of Florida's Palm Beach County decided on Sunday to recount all 425,000 presidential votes by hand in the county.
The county's Canvassing Board voted two-to-one for the new hand recount after the manual recount of a sample of more than 4,500 votes gave Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore a lead of 19 votes.
The hand recount of four selected precincts, which took place on Saturday, prompted the Democratic majority on the county election commission to order the hand recount in all 531 precincts. "This clearly would affect the national vote, " said Carol Roberts, a county commissioner and a member of the canvassing commission.
Palm Beach County, which is a Democratic stronghold, now holds the key in deciding whether Gore or his Republican rival George W. Bush can become the next president.
Democrats has asked for hand recount in three other counties, Miami-Dade, Volusia and Broward. On Sunday morning, Volusia County began a full hand recount of its 184,018 ballots.
The hand recount decision was strongly opposed by the Republican Party. The party has filed a lawsuit in a federal court to block the hand recount. The judge set a hearing for Monday to consider the case. "We vigorously lodge our protest and plead with you not to put the county through that��" said Mark Wallace, a lawyer for the Republican Party.
Unofficial tally in all 67 counties of Florida showed that Bush led his Democratic rival Al Gore by only 329 votes.
But the official recount of 65 of Florida's 67 counties gave Bush a lead of 960 votes.
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