Supreme Court: New factor in election equation

McKay's delicate phrasing -- "of course unknown" -- didn't begin to describe the events surrounding an election unsettled 17 days after the nation voted.

The maneuvering churned on against the backdrop of Republican running mate Dick Cheney's release from a Washington hospital. The 59-year-old vice presidential candidate said doctors had placed him under "no restrictions" that would interfere with him taking office.

Cheney told reporters he and Bush had talked by phone and chatted about his health. But he added, they also spent a lot of time talking about Florida, "which is what we usually talk about these days."

They weren't alone in that. Especially on a day when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a statement saying it would hear oral arguments on Dec. 1 on Bush's attempt to shut down the manual recounts that threaten his tenuous hold on the state that stands to pick the next president.

To the accompaniment of noisy street protests, Gore picked up votes as officials in Broward and Palm Beach Counties pressed ahead with the manual recounts triggered by the Democrats.

But Bush found additional support when a spate of counties heeded his plea to reconsider overseas military absentee ballots originally rejected for faulty postmarks.

By day's end, Bush held a lead of roughly 700 votes -- down from 930 when the manual recounts began -- with a 5 p.m. EST Sunday deadline set for the counting to stop. That's when Harris is legally permitted to certify a statewide winner under a Florida Supreme Court ruling.

Both campaigns said they might not accept that as final, though, and Gore's aides underscored the point during the day.

"We believe we stand on both strong political and legal ground for fighting beyond Sunday," said Ron Klain, a Gore legal adviser, who cited an abrupt decision Wednesday by officials in Miami-Dade County to abandon their recount.

"We need a fair count of the ballots in question and that must include freedom from intimidation," said Gore's running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.

Like everything else the Democrats did or said in Florida, that drew a Republican rebuttal.

"I don't recall Senator Lieberman opposing Jesse Jackson's organized protests orchestrated with the AFL-CIO in Palm Beach County," said Bush campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer.

In a letter to the Justice Department, Democratic members of Congress argued that protests that took place earlier in the week in Miami -- cited by the canvassing board when it shut down its recount -- "could amount to voter intimidation of federal law."

But former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole shot back: "Members of Congress write letters by the hundreds. Some of them are even read."

The Supreme Court's decision to accept Bush's appeal was a surprise in some quarters because elections are often seen as state business, and an earlier Bush challenge had been turned back to the state by a federal appellate court.

The court set up a breakneck schedule for next week: legal briefs are due on Tuesday and responses Thursday, then 90 minutes of oral arguments starting at 10 a.m. Friday.

Bush sought the court's intervention after the Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously to continue the state counting deadline from Nov. 17 to Nov. 26, and to allow election officials to consider a voter's intent in the case of disputed ballots.

Gore's lawyers had argued that the Florida process of recounts, punctuated by state court disputes over how to conduct them and whether to include disputed military ballots from abroad, was a state matter.

"The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted," the Supreme Court said, announcing it will hear the appeal next Friday, Dec. 1.

The court did nothing that would deter Harris from certifying the outcome of the election Sunday, scheduled for sometime after 6 p.m. EST. A strong Bush supporter, she had been to the brink of certification at least once before, when a different court intervened to stay her hand.

The Florida Supreme Court had ruled that the tally should include any recounted ballots certified by 5 p.m.

The winner stands to receive Florida's 25 electoral votes, enough for either Bush or Gore to gain the nationwide majority of 270 needed to claim the presidency.

The state's 25 electors must be chosen by Dec. 12.

And state Rep. Tom Feeney, a Republican and the new speaker of the Florida House, said GOP legislative leaders were seeking to intervene in the case before the high court to make sure the state wasn't disenfranchised by the lingering legal dispute.<