Q. Why is the fate of the 2000 presidential election in the hands of the Florida Supreme Court?
A. At the heart of the case is an apparent contradiction in Florida law. One section lets candidates ask for time-consuming manual recounts in closely contested counties. Another section of the law imposes a seven-day deadline for counties to report election results. The Florida Supreme Court has been asked to resolve the conflict.
Q. What side does the Bush campaign take in the dispute?
A. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris declined to wait for all the manual recounts to be completed before attempting to certify George W. Bush the winner at the end of the seven-day waiting period. Bush supporters argued that a deadline is a deadline, and that the state Legislature's intent was to have all manual recounts completed within a week of Election Day.
Q. What side does the Gore campaign take in the dispute?
A. Al Gore's campaign, alleging that the voting machines were inaccurate, has asked for manual recounts in several heavily Democratic Florida counties. The Gore campaign says that accuracy is more important than an arbitrary deadline and that the recounts should be included in the final results. The Legislature would not have given candidates the option of requesting manual recounts, Gore's lawyers said, without allowing for enough time to conduct them.
Q. Why are the recounts only going on in Democratic counties?
A. A candidate or party has to ask for a recount, and the Bush campaign chose not to ask for recounts in the counties that it won.
Q. What issues were raised by the justices in questioning the Democratic side?
A. The justices, through their questions, seemed concerned that if they discarded the state's seven-day rule they would open the process to endless recounts and legal disputes that could cause Florida to miss the federal deadline to make a ''final determination'' of who won its electoral votes.
Q. What date is that?
A. According to federal law, the Electoral College meets on the first Monday following the second Wednesday in December - which this year is Dec. 18. The states' ''final determination'' of their electors must take place six days before that - on Dec. 12.
Q. What issues were raised by the justices when they questioned the Republican side yesterday?
A. When questioning lawyers for the secretary of state and the Bush campaign, the justices voiced concern that the seven-day deadline was an unfair restraint that would deprive candidates and voters of enough time to exercise their right to a manual recount.
Q. So who won yesterday's court battle?
A. Nobody, yet. A decision could come as soon as today.
Q. How will we know who won?
A. If Harris is allowed to certify Florida's vote and award Bush the state's 25 electoral votes without waiting for the manual recounts, then the Republicans won this round, and perhaps the presidency. If the court says that the certification must wait until the results of the manual recount are completed, the Democrats won this particular round - but Gore must still pick up enough votes to overcome Bush's lead.
Q. Can the loser appeal the decision?
A. Yes, to the US Supreme Court.
Q. Would such an appeal be successful?
A. Maybe, but the federal courts have a long history of giving state and local officials wide latitude in conducting elections. The Supreme Court might not take the case, or might simply affirm the state court's decision.
Q. Would we then have a president?
A. Only if the loser chose to concede. Either candidate could still contest the final election results in a separate action in the Florida state courts, or mount legal challenges in federal court, or try to have Congress reject the state's electors when it meets in January.
Q. Are such attempts likely?
A. Given the current political climate, it is hard to rule them out definitively. Opinion polls suggest that voters are generally content to see the game go on. Yet eventually a candidate will begin to look like a sore loser, and will have to decide if it is worth continuing.
Compiled by John A. Farrell of the Globe Staff.
