Election 2000 stretched into the Thanksgiving Day holiday yesterday without a president-elect as the fierce tug of war between George W. Bush and Al Gore over Florida's crucial electoral college votes finally reached the US Supreme Court.
Citing the risk of a constitutional crisis, Bush's lawyers asked the high court justices Wednesday night to block a decision by the Florida Supreme Court to allow hand counts in three Democratic-leaning Florida counties.
Without a decision by the Supreme Court before Dec. 18, when each state's electors cast the final vote on who next will occupy the White House, "the consequences may well include the ascension of a president of questionable legitimacy, or a constitutional crisis," the appeal said.
It's an unpredictable, never-ending presidential race that just keeps getting more bizarre.
In a dizzying turn of events, Florida's largest county abruptly stopped recounting votes, sending Gore's lawyers scrambling back to court to keep a ballot-by-ballot fight for the White House grinding away. Bush asked the US Supreme Court to shut down all the recounts or risk a constitutional crisis.
"I won the vote in Florida," Republican candidate Bush said Wednesday -- a point that could hardly be more in dispute. He accused the Democrats of monkeying with laws to reverse the election's "legitimate result."
Away from the courts and counting rooms, Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney, who had had three heart attacks a decade ago, was hospitalized for chest pains and later underwent surgery to implant an artery-clearing device.
Late in the day, doctors said he had suffered "a very slight heart attack." They said he would recover fully.
Bush was temporarily reeling from a Florida Supreme Court ruling late Tuesday night that said manual recounts could continue until Sunday in the state that will determine America's 43rd president. Bush is clinging to a 930-vote lead out of six million cast.
Standing in front of a presidential-blue backdrop, the Texas governor accused the Florida Supreme Court of overreaching, and he had choice words for Democrats, too. "I believe Secretary Cheney and I won the vote in Florida. And I believe some are determined to keep counting in an effort to change the legitimate result," he said.
Bush's fortunes shifted with stunning speed. Within two hours of his news conference, a three-member elections board in predominantly Democratic Miami-Dade voted to scrap its recount. If the decision stands, Gore's presidential dreams would rest with two other southeast coast counties -- Palm Beach and Broward -- where his advisers feared there were not enough votes to catch Bush.
Gore appealed the Miami-Dade decision, but a state appeals court refused Wednesday night to force a return to recount work. Democrats said they would appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.
Seniors advisers said the vice president's slimming prospects depended upon the two remaining counties broadening their standards for validating votes, no sure thing, or if a court forces Miami-Dade to recount -- also a longshot.
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