IAMI - Suddenly, the laborious recounting in Florida has been turned into a race against a court-mandated deadline. But in the three counties where votes are still being tallied, there were quick expressions of confidence that the task can be finished in time.
In Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties, the Democratic strongholds where recounts have been launched, early reactions last night to the Florida Supreme Court ruling ranged from relief to anger to grim determination to get the job done.
''All this work wasn't for nothing, '' said Charles Lichtman, an attorney for the Broward County Democratic Party.
The court set aside the Nov. 14 deadline for certifying the Florida vote that the state's secretary of state had sought to enforce. To meet the new deadline of 5 p.m. Sunday, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties will have to push themselves even harder and finish their work earlier than planned. The recount in Broward County is almost done.
Kendall Coffey, a Gore attorney in Miami, said he had spoken to officials on the canvassing boards last night who assured him that they will complete the recount, either by working holiday hours or late into the night.
''This is the message everyone wanted to hear,'' he said of the court ruling. ''It'll be a lot of hours and I'm sympathetic with the workers, but this is important, and it's going to get done.''
Coffey did not say how Miami-Dade, which had not expected to finish recounting its 654,000 ballots until Dec. 1, would accomplish that task, and election supervisors could not be reached for comment. The canvassing board will meet at 8 a.m. today to discuss their options.
Coffey warned, however, that he expects ''a new round of Republican strategy to slow it down.'' He did not elaborate.
There are 1.7 million votes being recounted in South Florida, and the process is open to public scrutiny. The tension arises mostly from the ''undervotes,'' about 28,000 ballots from the three counties on which machines didn't detect a vote for president.
After the Supreme Court's ruling last night, the Broward County canvassing board said that it would continue with its hand recount, possibly even working on Thanksgiving Day in order to complete the job by the new deadline.
''We will be continuing to count tomorrow at 8 in the morning. The people's voice will be counted and it will be a fair decision made by everyone in Florida, at least in Broward County,'' said Suzanne Gunzburger, a Democrat and Broward County canvassing board member.
Broward County still must examine up to 2,000 ballots with dimpled chads to determine whether they can be counted.
The recount in Broward has so far netted about 106 votes for Gore with nearly all of the county's 609 election precincts counted - fewer than Democrats had hoped for. Gore needs more than 930 votes to defeat Texas Governor George W. Bush.
In Palm Beach, there was a similar sense that the count could be finished by Sunday.
The head of the Palm Beach canvassing board told counters to get back to work last night.
''We're really making pretty good progress and I think we can meet the deadline,'' Circuit Judge Charles Burton said. ''We've still got a long way to go. But at least the voters can be rest assured that every one of their ballots are being looked at.''
Burton, who initially opposed manual recounting in Palm Beach, said there still were no plans to have counters work on Thanksgiving. But the board may need to call in extra workers on Saturday, he said.
''It's nice to have the highest court in the state, in a unanimous decision, tell you that you are doing the right thing,'' Burton said. ''This is one of the finest examples of democracy in action.''
After several hours of watching and listening to the board's discussions in Miami-Dade County yesterday, two things became obvious: Republicans and Democrats nearly always objected when the board decided that a ballot favored the opposing candidate; and many people either forgot to vote for president or chose not to.
''We don't have any specific test,'' said Judge Lawrence King, chairman of Miami-Dade's canvassing board. ''We're just doing our best with each ballot to look at it and determine whom the voter intended to choose. It's actually pretty easy.''
At a crowded table in a large conference room on the 18th floor of Miami's Stephen P. Clark Government Center, in a boisterous setting, unlike the sedate trappings in Palm Beach County, the board ruled on thousands of ballots yesterday while a court reporter transcribed its words and lawyers from both parties exchanged grimaces and scribbled notes.
At varying points over several hours yesterday afternoon, the lawyers interrupted the otherwise smooth ballot review. ''I want to most strenuously object,'' said a Republican over one controversial ballot. ''I don't think it's fair to count this one.''
The Democrat's representative sat silently as David Leahy, the county's elections supervisor, held up the rectangular ballot and tilted it in the light. ''No, I think it's clear the stylus punched No. 6,'' he said looking at the box for Gore.
''I don't know,'' countered Judge Miriam Lehr. She and Leahy are registered independents, while King is a Democrat.
As with many ballots that were not completely punched through, the board voted 2-1 to count the vote. As of last night, Gore had a gain of 157 votes, with 135 of 614 precincts counted.
Grant Lally, a New York attorney with the Bush campaign, suspended the hand count for about 30 minutes to demand the board remove a county employee who had been helping supervise the process. He also exchanged angry words with King, telling him he would file a complaint with Miami's judicial review board.
''The votes on election day have nothing to do with today's tally,'' Lally said. ''I'm telling you, votes are disappearing. Chads are all over the place. And the ballots have been degraded and are in very bad shape.''
Democrats dismissed such allegations as a transparent effort to discredit the hand counts.
''They're throwing inflammatory bombs,'' said Luis Rosero, a spokesman for Gore's recount committee. ''It's all rhetoric and unsubstantiated allegations.''
Miami-Dade County election officials cannot categorically exclude any ballots. In each case, they must use their discretion to determine the voter's intent - a standard that judges have ordered both Broward and Palm Beach counties to adopt.
On Sunday, Broward officials changed their policy and decided to count ''dimpled'' chads, punchcard ballots with indentations or partial perforations. Yesterday, after four days of work turned up few votes for Gore in Palm Beach County, Democrats asked a judge to clarify his previous order that all ballots must be counted. They say election officials in Palm Beach are rejecting many dimpled ballots, of which there are hundreds left to count.
Results weren't available yesterday in Palm Beach County. As of early morning, Gore had a net gain of only about three votes with 103 out of 531 precincts counted.
Material from the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times was used in this report.
