The Associated Press

In the presidential campaign that won’t die, representatives for George W.

Tuesday, November 14, 2000

In the presidential campaign that won’t die, representatives for George W. Bush and Al Gore clashed over today’s deadline aimed at shutting down all vote counting in Florida except for overseas ballots. Heavily Democratic Palm Beach County delayed its recount while the legal battle played out.

The Gore campaign won a federal court ruling Monday that permitted hand recounts to continue in a few Democratic parts of the state. But officials in Palm Beach County, a Democratic bastion, said they cannot finish their hand count in time to meet the deadline, and they opted today to delay action until they see whether they can proceed.

A hand count was proceeding in Volusia County while officials in Miami-Dade County were deciding today whether to take the same step.

Even as Bush representatives intensified their efforts to get the counting wrapped up quickly, except for overseas ballots that must be received by midnight Friday night, Warren Christopher said he wouldn’t rule out the idea of broadening the hand recount to cover the entire state if that suggestion were put in play.

”It’s certainly something we’d want to look at,” he said today. ”Anything that would bring this to a fair result is one that I think we would have to look at very carefully.”