he Bush campaign's attempt to persuade a federal judge to stop a manual recount of ballots in Florida is framed as a defense not only of an orderly presidential succession, but also of the federal constitutional rights of the Bush-Cheney ticket and Floridians who voted for it. But the weight of legal authority seems to support the view that when it comes to the administration of elections - even elections for president - state law controls.
The GOP argues that a manual count adds an element of human error and subjectivity not present in computer recounts, and claims the federal court has jurisdiction because holding a count in only four of the 67 counties constitutes unequal treatment prohibited by the 14th Amendment.
''They have an awkward situation legally,'' said lawyer Trevor Potter, a Republican former member of the Federal Election Commission who counseled US Senator John S. McCain's presidential campaign. ''Federal law really turns over the selection of presidential electors to states. It's quite explicit that the states are supposed to establish procedures for voting and recount.''
Nevertheless, attorneys for the Bush campaign argue that Florida's procedures for a manual recount are so inherently arbitrary as to violate the free-speech and due-process rights of Florida voters.
Florida law contains no clear standard for deciding when to have a manual recount, Bush officials maintain, and it opens the door to repeated disputes among local officials that, given the extraordinary stakes, could decide by ''favoritism or worse.''
Thus, the campaign alleges, a hand count would actually be less accurate than the machine recount that preserved a slender 325-vote margin for the Texas governor.
Filing this lawsuit puts the Republican candidate, who has campaigned on the notion that state government is closer to the people, in the ironic position of asking a federal judge to declare Florida's state law unconstitutional.
By the same token, the Gore campaign's response - a defense of Florida's procedures and prerogatives - inverts the usual Democratic preference for federal power.
The case will be heard by US District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, a Clinton appointee, and any appeal would be heard by the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, seven of whose 12 judges were appointed by Republican presidents.
At least in theory, the issue could reach the Supreme Court, where it could test the state sovereignty doctrine articulated in recent decisions by a five-member majority composed of Republican-appointed justices.
It is far from clear how the Bush campaign will sustain its contention that Florida's manual recount procedures violate the Constitution.
In Texas, Bush signed a 1997 law that actually required that a manual recount be used instead of a machine recount under certain circumstances, as Democrats were quick to point out this weekend.
One indication that the Bush campaign's legal strategy is driven by a concern that a hand recount in Palm Beach County might tip the final vote to Gore comes in its decision to go to federal court rather than simply demanding manual recounts in pro-Bush counties.
''I think it's highly possible that a federal judge will say it's a state issue, forget it,'' said Cleta Mitchell, a GOP election lawyer. ''I do not understand why the Bush campaign would not simply go to all counties where it wants a hand recanvass.''
