George W. Bush's campaign fiercely attacked the hand-recounting of votes in Florida's overtime presidential election Saturday, depicting a process riddled with human error and Democratic bias. Al Gore's lawyers defended the effort in papers filed with the state Supreme Court.
''I think when the American people learn about these things, they're going to ask themselves, 'What in the name of God is going on here?''' said Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, brought to Austin, Texas, by the Bush campaign to lead the GOP assault. He alleged ballots had been dropped, misfiled and mishandled by exhausted - or pro-Gore - officials.
Eleven days after America voted, the final tally of overseas absentee ballots showed Bush lengthening his lead from an almost invisible 300 votes to a still-minuscule 930 out of 6 million votes cast.
In court-challenged recounts under way in two counties, Gore had gained by 53 votes, which if they are counted would cut Bush's lead to 877.
There was conflict in the overseas count, too, as the GOP charged Democrats with systematically challenging votes cast by members of the armed forces.
In rebuttal, Gore spokesman Chris Lehane accused Bush of injecting ''raw, crass partisan politics into a situation that ought to be guided by the laws of our land.''
All sides readied arguments for Monday's hearing before the state Supreme Court. Ruling unanimously on Friday, the justices stopped Secretary of State Katherine Harris from disallowing the hand recounts and certifying Bush the winner, at least until it can consider the issue.
Controversy trumped certainty from one end of the state to the other.
While Republicans charged Democrats with constructing a flawed recount process, Democrats said the GOP was forcing interminable delays.
''We will all be here until Christmas if this continues,'' said Charles Burton, a member of the Palm Beach County canvassing board deep into the hand recount of 462,350 ballots.
Passions rose later in the day when Republicans accused officials in Miami-Dade County of planning to take some ballots that can't be counted by machine, determine the voter's intent, then mark new ballots accordingly - pink-colored for identification - that the machines would accept.
''They've gone from counting votes, to looking for votes, to now they're going to manufacturing votes,'' charged Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., who arrived in Florida during the day.
Mayco Villafana, spokesman for county, said if ballots are contested by either side, ''the canvassing board can take that card, replace it with a pink duplicate and anyone can tell that it is a duplicate card and that there is an original.''
Up the coast in Palm Beach County, Burton said the recounts were unprecedented.
''I don't think there is anyone in this room who has done this before.''
Or anywhere else, for that matter, in a contest that left Bush and Gore dangling and the nation without a president-elect 11 days after the votes were cast. Neither man emerged from Election Day with enough Electoral College votes to claim victory.
And that made Florida, where Bush's brother is governor and where Gore and running mate Joseph Lieberman campaigned energetically, the decisive state.
Gore has pressed for the recounts, in the hope they will allow him to overtake Bush's narrow lead.
By early evening, the vice president had a net gain of 53 votes. Recounts from 219 of 609 precincts in Broward County showed him with a gain of 57 votes, but totals from four of 531 precincts in Palm Beach County showed Bush with a gain of four.
In Miami-Dade, one official said the hand recounting could stretch to the start of December. ''If there are no objections, we expect to begin manually counting ballots this coming Monday, and our goal is to complete a counting by Friday, Dec. 1,'' said David Leahy, supervisor of elections for the county where 654,000 ballots awaited a hand review.
Harris' final tally of overseas absentee ballots showed Bush gaining 630 votes on his rival. She released the figures unceremoniously, a contrast to earlier plans to trumpet the results and certify Bush the winner.
The GOP welcomed the increase in support anyway.
''We are hopeful that once the Florida Supreme Court has heard arguments in this case, the laws of Florida will prevail and the election will be certified,'' spokeswoman Karen Hughes said.
Final overseas figures from all 67 counties showed Bush picking up 1,380 votes, Gore 750.
An additional 1,420 ballots were challenged and not counted, many because they did not bear postmarks. The ballots had to be postmarked by Nov. 7, Election Day, to count. Republicans accused Democrats of thwarting efforts by members of the armed forces to have their votes counted.
Hughes unleashed the Bush campaign's attack at midday, saying the recounting was ''distorting, reinventing and miscounting the true intentions of the voters of Florida.''
Racicot went further.
He told reporters that in each of three counties, ''every questionable ballot is decided by a Democrat-dominated canvassing board.''
In addition, he alleged instances in which chad, paper punched out of a ballot, had been taped over the hole that would signify a vote for Bush. He said Bush ballots had been placed in the Gore piles, cited one instance in which an older man had dropped a pile of ballots on the floor, described scenes of exhaustion and confusion.
In their papers filed with the Florida Supreme Court, the Gore lawyers offered a different view.
''Manual recounts are an essential part of the law of Florida'' and other states, and have been used successfully to help resolve other elections, they argued.
''The outcome of Florida's presidential election will determine who becomes the next president of the United States.'' For that reason it is essential, Gore's lawyers continued, ''that the voters of Florida, and all of the citizens of our country, have great confidence that the individual declared the winner of the election here actually was the choice of Florida's voters.''
There were clear indications that Democrats understood the importance of proceeding promptly.
Bruce Rogow, the attorney for Palm Beach County elections supervisor Theresa LaPore, said former Secretary of State Warren Christopher had telephoned him on Thursday, urging him to advise his client to start the oft-delayed recount immediately.
''I told him no. I told him we'd have to wait,'' Rogow recalled.
''He told me he appreciated my position and that was it,'' Rogow added of Christopher, who is laboring on Gore's behalf in the state.
