Miami-Dade Ends Hand Recounting

— -- Miami-Dade County has unanimously decided to stop all hand counting of ballots —which could cripple Al Gore’s chance of passing George W. Bush in Florida’s ongoing presidential vote tally. The Gore camp says it will go to court to try to order the recount there to resume.

ABCNEWS.comNov. 22

A day after the Florida’s High Court ruled that recount results must be included in the state’s final tally, the Sunshine State’s biggest county voted today to stop hand counting ballots altogether.

The Miami-Dade canvassing board voted 3-0 this afternoon to call off its recount. The chairman of the board, Lawrence King, said the county could not complete its recount by the 5 p.m. Sunday Nov. 26 deadline set by the Florida Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling on Tuesday.

“I do not believe we have the ability to conduct a full,accurate recount,” he said.

Miami-Dade officials announced this morning that it would throw out a partial recount in which Gore had gained 157 votes, and only recount some 10,750 “undervotes” — ballots that did not register a presidential vote in an initial machine recount. Earlier, the canviassing board said it would need until Dec. 1 to get a complete hand count done.

Republicans complained about the action, and the board reconvened and called off the new count.

The action is a crucial set-back to Democratic candidate Al Gore’s efforts to overtake his Republican rival George W. Bush’s 930-vote lead.

Gore Campaign Chairman Bill Daley said the vice president’s attorneys would ask a court to order the county to resume its manual recount.

“ Under Florida law, oncethe finding is made, the recount is mandatory,” Daley told reporters at the vice president’s residence in Washington, D.C.