ALLAHASSEE - Vice President Al Gore took a legal beating in Florida yesterday, as state courts twice denied Gore's request to begin recounting ballots immediately and rejected a challenge to the ''butterfly'' ballots that some Democratic voters said were confusing.
The Florida Supreme Court, in back-to-back announcements, refused to order the recount of any of the 1.16 million ballots from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties that are now under guard in Tallahassee. The seven-judge panel also dismissed claims that the Palm Beach ballots were so confusing as to be invalid.
Less than an hour before, Leon County Circuit Court Judge N. Sanders Sauls rejected a plea by the Gore legal team to start counting the sequestered ballots immediately. The vice president's lawyers worry that even if they win a trial that begins today, they could lose their effort to make Gore the 43d president, since there might not be enough time to recount the ballots.
In addition, a federal judge yesterday agreed to take up the issue of military ballots that were rejected because they lacked the proper postmark. US District Judge Lacey Collier set a Tuesday hearing on the matter in a Pensacola court. The Bush camp believes the military votes would be overwhelmingly Republican.
The legal setbacks to the Gore camp make today's trial, which will determine whether 14,000 ballots from Democratic-leaning counties will be recounted, even more critical. The vice president's attorneys will need a ruling that is both in their favor and speedy, so counters could tally the contested ballots in time for a mid-December deadline to select Florida's 25 representatives to the Electoral College.
''We're disappointed that they're not going to take it up right now,'' said Gore attorney David Boies, commenting on the Florida Supreme Court decision on the ballot-counting. But he indicated he wasn't surprised. ''We understand that it would have been a very unusual step,'' Boies said.
Court spokesman Craig Waters said the Gore petition was dismissed ''without prejudice,'' meaning it could be filed again. But every day the Gore camp loses in the courts is a lost day for recounting.
''Every day, it obviously gets harder,'' said Gore lawyer Ron Klain. ''Still, it can be done if it starts sooner rather than later.''
The Gore campaign was not a party to the butterfly ballot case. But the ruling, while not unexpected by legal scholars, was a setback for the Democrats.
Voters in heavily Democratic Palm Beach County have complained that the paper ballot design, which had two sets of candidates' names lined up on either side of a row of punch holes, was confusing. Many said they accidentally voted for Reform Party candidate Patrick J. Buchanan when they meant to vote for Gore.
''As a general rule, a court should not void an election for ballot form defects unless such defects cause the ballots to be in substantial noncompliance with the statutory election requirements,'' the Florida Supreme Court said in a brief opinion. The Palm Beach ballot problems did not meet that standard, the court said.
As time passes, Gore's options dwindle. The vice president's chances of beating Bush are essentially down to two scenarios. First, he could win his court challenge of the Florida election, and succeed in picking up enough votes in a recount to best his opponent. That option would also require enough time for recounting, and a generous determination of what sort of mark on a ballot signifies a vote.
Or, Gore could end up winning the state and with it, the presidency, if Democrats prevail in cases challenging absentee ballots in two counties. A trial begins Wednesday on whether 15,000 absentee ballots in Seminole County should be reexamined and perhaps discarded, because Republican officials fixed the applications for the ballots.
''There is absolutely no reason to believe these are not valid votes. These ballots ought to be counted,'' said Bush lawyer George Terwilliger.
''Seminole County is a wild card,'' said Heather Gerken, a professor at Harvard Law School, since the elimination of some of the ballots could turn the election to Gore without requiring the time needed for a massive recount.
In results certified Sunday by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, Bush was declared the winner by 537 votes.
Two more cases were filed yesterday to eliminate absentee ballots. One asked that 1,500 ballots in 10 Republican-leaning counties be rejected because they arrived after Election Day. A second case, from Martin County, challenged nearly 10,000 absentee ballots, saying GOP officials had fixed the ballot applications.
While the court cases mount, Gore faces a possible end run by the Florida Legislature, which is mulling a special session to name its own slate of electors. Since both houses of the Legislature are controlled by Republicans, the Gore camp presumes they would name electors for George W. Bush.
Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney said he is ready to call a special session for that purpose. But Feeney's counterpart, state Senate President John McKay, was more cautious yesterday, saying he needed first to consider a report by a legislative committee.
''I'm doing this very reluctantly,'' McKay told reporters. He said that any such move would be done in the form of a joint resolution, meaning Governor Jeb Bush, brother of the Republican presidential candidate, would not face the discomfiting task of signing it.
McKay also appeared to be buying time for the Legislature to make the controversial move. While lawyers and lawmakers have been operating under the presumption that the electors must be selected by Dec. 12, McKay said he believes the Legislature could wait until Dec. 18, the day the Electoral College meets.
Today's court proceeding is technically a hearing but effectively a trial, Sauls said, since evidence and witnesses will be presented.
Asked if he felt confident, a beleaguered-looking Boies said, ''I feel rushed.''
The Bush campaign had originally offered a list of more than 90 witnesses, fueling Democratic complaints that the GOP was trying to delay the case into irrelevance.
The Bush camp also has succeeded in persuading Sauls to impound 1.2 million ballots from Broward, Pinellas, and Volusia counties for possible recounting. ''We were preserving our rights,'' said Bush lawyer Barry Richard.
Richard, who will make opening and closing arguments today, said that his witness list had been trimmed to fewer than 20 and that he was not stalling.
Sauls also indicated he wanted as speedy a trial as possible, with no redundant testimony. ''Absolutely, let's get all the fluff off,'' he urged.
