ANTA FE - After a local recount gave Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush a 17-vote lead in New Mexico, Republican lawyers said yesterday that they were asking the courts to impound absentee and early voting ballots statewide in case of future recounts.
State Police said they seized ballots in four counties after a state judge granted the lawyers' request Saturday, and attorneys said similar lawsuits were due to be filed by today in the remaining 12 New Mexico judicial districts.
''The intent is to impound the early voting and absentee ballots, the paper ballots,'' said Albuquerque lawyer Duncan Scott, who filed the lawsuits together with lawyer Mickey Barnett, a New Mexico member of the Republican National Committee.
Scott said the lawsuits were being filed on behalf of Rita Nunez-Neumann, a Republican who lost her race for a state appeals court judgeship to a Democrat by a margin of 45 to 55 percent or about 50,000 votes, according to unofficial state figures.
Scott said his client was not requesting a recount but wanted to ''preserve the integrity'' of the paper ballots, tallied separately from Election Day votes, in case further recounts are sought after one in Bernalillo County, which encompasses Albuquerque.
Results of the Bernalillo County recount of absentee and early voting ballots were delayed until late Friday after a box of 257 ballots went missing and was then found within the guarded warehouse where the count was held.
That recount turned Democrat Al Gore's early lead in New Mexico into an unofficial lead of 17 for Bush, although the tally could change again because as many as 189 so-called emergency ballots remain to be counted by Thursday.
Under New Mexico law, a recount request cannot be made until after the results are certified by state election officials on Nov. 28.
Close votes in four other states raise the possibility of recounts there.
The Bush campaign has sent representatives to Iowa to assess a possible challenge to Al Gore's 4,949-vote lead. County boards of supervisors will meet today or tomorrow to examine vote totals, consider challenges, and declare the results official. All requests for a recount must be made to a county within three days of the canvass, either Thursday or Friday.
Under a recount, each county would have 18 days after its canvass to complete the new tally, said Sandy Steinbach, the state elections director. A recount could cover all of the nearly 1.3 million ballots cast statewide or target specific counties.
In Oregon, with 99 percent of the votes counted as of Friday, unofficial results gave Gore a 5,756-vote lead over Bush. A recount would be required by state law if the margin falls to less than one-fifth of 1 percent, or about 2,800 votes. If a recount is called, it is expected to be held the first week of December. Counting of about 40,000 votes from Oregon's mail-in balloting resumes today.
The Bush campaign has not ruled out requesting a recount in Wisconsin, where Gore led Bush by 6,099 votes out of 2.5 million votes cast. The campaign cannot request a recount until all 72 counties turn in certified vote tallies to the state today or tomorrow. It then must do so within three days.
In New Hampshire, Secretary of State William M. Gardner said his office had received no request for a recount; the deadline for such a request is 5 p.m. today. As of Friday, Bush was ahead of Gore in the Granite State by 7,202 votes.
Kathy Sullivan, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said she did not expect a recount to be requested in New Hampshire. ''Frankly, I think it's pretty clear it's not going to happen,'' she said.
Material from Lois Shea of the Globe Staff and the Associated Press was used in this report.
