ircuit Court Judge Terry Lewis's ruling Friday that allowed the certification of Florida's vote without adding the latest hand-counted tallies left George W. Bush predictably elated.
But the court decision that will ultimately determine the presidency may still rule in Al Gore's favor.
The Florida Supreme Court will have more of a say on this matter than the state Circuit Court judge's ruling. And the Supreme Court has already issued what many see as an indication as to how it will ultimately rule on this crucial question of hand-counting ballots.
After Secretary of State Katherine Harris froze the Palm Beach County effort by saying that the hand-counted votes would not be accepted, the state Supreme Court ruled that there was no legal impediment to continuing the hand-count of ballots in three counties.
After that opinion was rendered, the hand count continued. And even after the circuit court ruled that Harris acted within her allowed discretion, hand counts continued - suggesting Florida's Supreme Court carries the greater weight.
On Friday, in an even more resounding indication of where it may stand, the high court ordered the secretary of state not to certify the state's vote totals, as she had planned to do yesterday.
Given those actions, there is a fairly good chance that the Supreme Court could overrule Lewis and order the hand-counted ballots included in the overall vote total with the overseas ballots.
If the Supreme Court - which has oral arguments scheduled for tomorrow - ends up allowing the hand-counted ballots, Harris and the state GOP are going to end up looking bad. The Bush team might have great difficulty explaining how they believe in the ''rule of law,'' meanwhile doing everything it can to avoid the law laid down by the state Supreme Court.
Of course, if the Florida Supreme Court rules that the hand-counted ballots may and will not be included in the overall vote total, that would be a huge victory for the Bush camp. It would leave Gore and many Democratic voters feeling disenfranchised by a faulty machine counter and a confusing ballot that resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of votes that would have gone to the vice president.
With a hand count of ballots, at least some fairness will be returned to the voting system, and the number of voters wrongly disenfranchised will once again have their votes count.
There is, of course, no guarantee that Gore will ultimately prevail with the hand count of the ballots in the predominantly Democratic counties. But there are signs that Bush's hardball tactics may not be serving him well. An example, as witnessed by television viewers Friday morning, was the entrance of GOP lawyers armed with subpoenas into a room where ballots were being counted. The lawyers told them that the hand count was illegal and that they would be put on trial if they did not stop. That intimidation tactic, however, appeared not to work. The people in the room continued to count ballots.
Moves such as these by the GOP help to explain why public opinion still supports a hand count of the ballots as the fairest way to determine who will win Florida's 25 electoral votes, and thus the presidency.
While the Bush team and other GOP supporters argue that a hand count in only a few counties, and those heavily-Democratic at that, is unfair if not unconstitutional, the Democrats remind the Republicans that they had an opportunity to request votes in the heavily Republican counties be hand-counted, before the deadline passed for such a request.
Of course, calling for a hand count of ballots would have been directly counter to their strategy, which is to make the process seem much more flawed and open to mischief than the machine count.
But it should be remembered that Bush signed into Texas law provisions which not only call for a hand count, but state that a hand count would be preferable in determining the final outcome of a vote total. And no members of the Bush team rushed to disallow the hand count of votes in New Mexico that gave Bush a narrow lead in one point during the recount.
The Gore team knows that a hand count of the ballots in these largely Democratic counties could give Gore the decisive voting edge - and the presidency.
If Florida's Supreme Court ultimately rules that the hand-counted ballots must be included in the overall total, most voters are likely to see this as the fairest way to resolve one of the most intriguing - and one of the most educational - presidential elections ever.
Then the decision that determines our next president will finally rest not with the courts but with the voters - as it should.
Robert A. Jordan is a Globe columnist.
