Republican George W. Bush forged ahead yesterday with plans to move into the White House as Democrat Al Gore tried to shore up ebbing support for his battle to contest the US presidential vote in Florida.
Lawyers for both sides had to file briefs by 4pm yesterday with the US Supreme Court, which is hearing a Bush appeal challenging the inclusion of hand-counted ballots in Florida's final election tally.
Those recounted ballots narrowed Bush's lead in the state to 537 ballots from around 1,700 the day after the election, but still allowed him to grab the state's 25 electoral votes, putting him over the 270 needed to become president.
PHOTO: AP
Bush's strategy is to move ahead with his transition, headed by his vice presidential running mate Dick Cheney, while orchestrating maximum pressure on Gore to drop the struggle.
But Democrats have stood firm, claiming there has not been a full recount and that if it went ahead it would show Gore the winner in Florida.
The camps' legal teams also face a 5pm EST deadline to file papers with the Florida Supreme Court in a lawsuit seeking a new presidential vote in Palm Beach County because of an allegedly confusing "butterfly" ballot that Democrats have said cost Gore thousands of votes.
Polls showed that Americans -- after nearly three weeks of being patient with the meticulous counting and recounting of presidential ballots -- were beginning to come down with election fatigue.
Two new polls said a solid majority of Americans believed Gore should drop his legal challenges -- and let Bush prepare to take over the presidency. And news that the long-running US presidential drama might be near its end sent blue-chip stocks to close higher on Monday.
Flanked by American flags, Gore cast himself as a defender of democracy and the Constitution in a five-minute televised address to the nation on Monday, asking Americans for patience as he contested the presidential vote in Florida.
"This is America. When votes are cast we count them. We don't arbitrarily set them aside because it's too difficult to count them," Gore declared, stating his position that there still had not been a fair and complete count in Florida.
"I believe our Constitution matters more than convenience. So, as provided under Florida law, I have decided to contest this inaccurate and incomplete count, in order to ensure the greatest possible credibility for the outcome," he added.
Accusing Republicans of intimidation to prevent a full count, Gore declared: "A vote is not just a piece of paper. A vote is a human voice, a statement of human principle, and we must not let those voices be silenced."
His lawyers challenged the Florida count in papers filed on Monday in Tallahassee, the Florida state capital, saying the tally improperly included illegal votes and excluded legal ones in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Nassau counties.
Republicans blasted the vice president's TV appearance.
"It was nothing new. I don't think the vice president advanced his cause," said adviser Ari Fleischer.
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