IAMI - For a moment yesterday, it might have seemed that Elian Gonzalez had returned to Miami.
Not since the spring, when this city was at the center of an international tussle over the young Cuban boy, had so many adults waved flags and made impassioned, impromptu speeches in English and Spanish as they did yesterday at Dade County Hall while officials tried to conduct a manual recount of its presidential ballots.
That count ended abruptly yesterday afternoon - to a chorus of cheers from supporters of Governor Gov. George W. Bush - when the three-member Miami-Dade canvassing board decided it would not be able to finish its tabulation before a Sunday deadline imposed by the Florida Supreme Court. Democratic lawyers quickly filed an emergency petition to reinstate the hand count, but that request was denied last night by a state appeals court. Democrats said they will appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Even in a city famous for its boisterous protests and sometimes rebellious attitudes toward politics, yesterday's drama was dizzying.
Early in the morning, the board decided that rather than manually recount all of the ballots cast in the Nov. 7 election, it would concentrate on so-called undervotes - ballots on which no clear preference could be detected by voting machines. Republicans quickly criticized the decision, saying it was unfair to count only a portion of the county's ballots.
As officials attempted to relocate workers and equipment to another floor to begin counting these 10,750 ballots, a group of protesters, most of them Republican, pushed their way inside, shouting, ''Let us see the ballots.''
An hour later, in the lobby of the tall, beige-colored County Hall building downtown, a Republican observer accused a top state Democratic official of stealing a ballot, summoning police and media to follow him. It turned out to be a blank sample ballot.
Around midday, after consulting with a county attorney, board members met again and voted unanimously to stop the recount, arguing that they would be unable to process all of the ballots by the 5 p.m. Sunday deadline.
''Once we got upstairs and looked at all the dynamics involved, we decided to re-evaluate,'' said Lawrence King, a Democrat and one of the board members, to reporters afterwards. He added that without more time, ''I do not believe we have the ability to conduct a full, accurate recount.''
The decision was a significant blow to Vice President Al Gore, whose candidacy was expected to benefit most from a recount in the heavily Democratic county. With hand recounts completed in about one-sixth of the precincts, Gore had picked up 157 votes.
But by ending the manual recount, those 157 votes will be lost, and the canvassing board will ask the state to certify the results from a machine count of ballots conducted on Nov. 8, along with the totals from overseas and absentee votes.
Democratics argued the board's decision was a violation of the state Supreme Court's ruling. The court, in its decision, said recount decisions were in the ''sound discretion'' of the county canvassing boards.
Board officials said a full recount of the ballots would take at least four full days, and then only if workers would work through Thanksgiving and the weekend.
News of the board's decision sparked cheers - and even happy tears - through the mostly Republican crowd of 150 people outside holding Bush/Cheney posters and waving American flags.
''Finally, common sense has taken over in Miami-Dade County,'' Republican US Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart said after the hand count was halted.
Democratic supporters like Leonard Gracey, 43, could only stand quietly with his arms folded as he watched the Republicans celebrate.
''They're acting like it's all over, and we know it's not,'' Gracey said, partially covering the Gore/Lieberman sticker on his sweater. ''I don't even think it's over in Miami. Someone somewhere will file to go to court.''
Someone in the Republican crowd even held up a reminder of Miami's other drama: a photo of a helmeted Immigration and Naturalization Service agent, hoisting a machine gun, and reaching for young Elian Gonzalez.
''It's been one year ago this week that Elian came to Miami,'' said the unidentified man who held the photo. ''It seems like old news now but we can't forget. That's why what happens here is so important to make sure the government doesn't behave like that again.''
