ASHINGTON - Some of the workers who arranged George W. Bush's campaign appearances are now in Florida and are leading Republican protests of recounts in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
''You're not going to steal this election,'' one of the operatives, Brad Blakeman, blared Friday into a bullhorn outside the Broward County ballot counting center. Around him stood protesters waving knockoffs of the official Gore-Lieberman campaign poster. The posters read ''Sore Loserman.''
Blakeman was one of Bush's lead ''advance'' people through the election. He crisscrossed New Hampshire, set up other primary appearances, and played a key role at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
Democrats have said that the Bush campaign has contributed to near-riots in Florida, including a scene on Wednesday at the Stephen C. Clark Governmental Center in Miami. Demonstrators clamored to get into the building before the Miami-Dade canvassing board abruptly decided not to forge ahead with a recount in its heavily Democratic county.
The canvassing board denied a political motive for halting the count, saying instead that it was impossible to meet the deadline of this evening or tomorrow morning that had been set by Florida's Supreme Court.
''The board did not feel intimidated by the protests, I can assure you,'' said Rhonda Barnett, a county spokeswoman. ''Their decision was based on logistics. They just believed it wasn't possible to finish the counts in an accurate and timely manner.''
But David Leahy, the county's supervisor of elections and a nonpartisan member of the board, said the protesters had influenced his decision to vote against the hand recount.
The turbulence prompted Joseph I. Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, to say on Friday: ''These demonstrations were clearly designed to intimidate and prevent a simple count of votes from going forward.''
The action also prompted five Democratic members of the US House of Representatives to ask Attorney General Janet Reno for an investigation into the board's decision.
Republicans argued that the protesters are doing nothing illegal, that they are merely exercising their constitutional right to free speech.
In a private conversation yesterday, one advance team member said the Bush operatives were paying their own expenses in Florida and were not acting under directions from campaign headquarters in Austin, Texas. As the advance team member spoke over a campaign-issued cell phone, protesters clamored in the background.
Besides Blakeman, Lani Miller, a California lawyer and a Republican activist who had arranged some of the Texas governor's West Coast swings, was visible on national television Friday, organizing protesters.
On Wednesday, Todd Beyer and Leslie Shockley, two other principal members of Bush's campaign advance team, which handled chores from arranging buses for the traveling press to checking the microphone before Bush spoke, jostled for position in the background of a CNN camera shot.
Each held up a pro-Bush poster and wore an anti-Gore T-shirt.
A campaign spokesman said the pro-Bush demonstrators were acting no differently than had the Democrats, who had earlier led protests outside election offices in South Florida.
''Where was Joe Lieberman when Jesse Jackson organized Democratic protests in Palm Beach County to protest on behalf of Al Gore?'' said a Bush spokesman, Ari Fleischer. ''Why didn't he publicly disclaim those protests?''
Blakeman, meanwhile, used his bullhorn to tell pro-Gore forces across the street, ''We have freedom of speech, too, and we're watching you.''
The scene was captured on videotape and broadcast nationally on the CBS Evening News.
