ASHINGTON - The election drama escalated yesterday - and threatened to last for weeks - when an incomplete and unofficial recount of Florida ballots sliced George W. Bush's lead over Al Gore to 229 votes, a razor-thin margin that could change again when overseas votes are tallied and that is already being challenged in the courts.
As the official statewide recount diminished Bush's election-night lead of 1,784 by more than three-fourths, the Gore campaign requested that another recount be done in four counties by hand, a more exhaustive process which potentially could catch more mistakes. Moreover, an estimated 2,900 ballots from overseas, mostly from members of the armed forces and Floridians in Israel, must be received by Nov. 17 and could alter the outcome.
The Gore campaign yesterday was in no rush to concede, taking a tough stance by saying that ballot ''irregularities'' might lead to lengthy lawsuits. That raised the possibility that the president wouldn't be selected by the Electoral College in its Dec. 18 voting, potentially making chaos out of what is supposed to be an orderly transfer of power.
In an escalating war of words between campaign chiefs, Gore campaign chairman William Daley accused the Bush campaign of trying ''to presumptively crown themselves the victor.'' Urging an orderly investigation, he added: ''Technicalities should not determine the president of the United States, the will of the people should.'' Daley also took offense at Bush's ''rush'' to consider Cabinet appointments.
Bush campaign chairman Donald Evans retorted that ''the Democrats are politicizing and distorting these events at the expense of our democracy.'' Evans said he was confident that when the recount is concluded, Bush would be president-elect.
The Florida recount initially was to be completed yesterday, but the deadline was not met. However, the Associated Press reported unofficial recount totals from 66 out of 67 counties had sliced Bush's lead from 1,784 to 229 out of nearly 6 million cast. State officials promised they would have a result by their Tuesday deadline.
In Palm Beach County, a recount of the recount is planned. County officials said yesterday that they would hold a second recount, by machine and by hand, with the results reported, as required, by next Tuesday. In the recount completed yesterday by the county, Gore gained 751 votes while Bush added 108. Democratic officials hope Gore's total will rise even further when the second recount is completed.
To add to the confusion, the counting of absentee ballots narrowed the margin in several other states where recounts might now be required.
Gore narrowly won in Iowa and Wisconsin and was projected by the television networks to be the winner in New Mexico, while the race is Oregon is still too close to call. Gore won Iowa by about 5,000 votes and Wisconsin by 6,099 votes, prompting Republican officials in both states to consider calling for a recount.
Bush, meanwhile, was only 7,282 votes ahead in New Hampshire, so Democrats may ponder a recount request there.
But the focus yesterday was mostly on Palm Beach County, where two potential problems arose: about 19,000 ballots were thrown out because voters made two choices for president, and Reform Party nominee Patrick J. Buchanan received more votes than even he expected.
Democrats said both of those problems were due to what they called a confusing ''butterfly'' ballot, in which a ballot has lists of names down two sides and a row of holes to be punched in the middle. Democrats said that many people who thought they were voting for Gore, who was listed on the left side of the ballot, mistakenly punched the Buchanan hole, which was in between Gore and Buchanan's names.
Additional questions were raised yesterday about whether the ballot was illegal because the names of the presidential candidates were supposed be listed in the following order: Bush, Gore, and then others. Though Bush was listed first and Gore was second, the holes in the ballot were listed in this order: Bush, Buchanan, Gore. As a result, a legal challenge might be based partly on the contention that the punchholes were listed in the wrong order.
Meanwhile, Buchanan received 3,407 votes in Palm Beach County, more than in any other Florida county.
Buchanan, who has a long history of animosity against the Bush family but is no supporter of Gore, inserted himself in the dispute yesterday, saying he probably received votes meant for someone else.
''My guess is, I probably got some votes down there that really did not belong to me and I do not feel well about that,'' Buchanan said on NBC-TV's ''Today'' show. ''I don't want to take any votes that do not belong to me.''
But Bush's chief strategist, Karl Rove, said Buchanan made a strong effort in Palm Beach County, an area that Rove said has seen a 110 percent increase in Reform Party registration since 1996.
That ''would tend to indicate that the people who were changing their registrations were motivated and enthusiastic, while in the rest of the state, the [Reform] party label only saw an increase of 38 percent,'' Rove said.
Yesterday's recount was mostly done by reinserting ballots into the voting machines. Democratic officials said they would request another recount - this one by hand - in four counties, Palm, Dade, Broward, and Volusia. A hand recount theoretically can catch more mistakes than a machine.
Then there is the question of whether the ballots from overseas, which the AP said numbered 2,900, might change the result. While no exact count is available, there are estimates that 1,000 might come from Floridians living in Israel and the rest from members of the armed forces.
Bush strategist Rove said that Republican presidential candidates typically win most of the ballots from members of the armed forces, but many enlisted soldiers are from lower-income backgrounds or minority families and may vote Democratic, according to Gore campaign officials.
Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said he had heard wide-ranging estimates of the number of ballots expected from overseas voters, with the consensus being several thousand.
Lehane said that while the Bush campaign hoped that many would be supporters in the US military, pre-election reports showed that an unusually large number were requested from Israel, perhaps a sign of support for Joseph I. Lieberman, the Orthodox Jew who is Gore's running mate.
''It's difficult to make any kind of estimate of where those votes would come in, but obviously we're heartened by the reports of requests from Israel,'' Lehane said.
The overseas ballots are due 10 days after the election, meaning they must be certified by Nov. 17.
But even at that point, the election might not be over.
Daley, the Gore campaign chairman, strongly suggested yesterday that the campaign would pursue legal challenges if the state certification still showed that Bush won. With 19,000 ballots tossed out in Palm Beach County, and with Buchanan receiving the strong vote in that county, the Gore campaign says it has grounds to ask a circuit court to review the result. Already, several Floridians have filed suits that contend the vote was unfair.
The circuit judge has a lot of latitude in deciding the case, with the authority to do everything from throwing out the county's vote to ordering a new county election. It is not clear what judge might hear the case.
If, by any of these means, Gore is able to win Florida, it is possible that Republicans may try to challenge the outcome in several other states, leading to the possibility of a legal wrangle that could go on indefinitely. It is also possible that the election could be sent to the US House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans.
The bitterness between the two campaigns, and the uncertainty of the outcome, rattled Wall Street, where stocks dropped by more than 150 points in the minutes after a Gore aide threatened legal action, and was down as much as 284 during the day, but the exchange regained some strength to close down 73 points.
As the counting in Florida continued, it was not clear whether Gore's contention that he won the popular vote nationwide would hold up. Gore's lead in the popular vote last night was about 193,000, according to unofficial tallies by news media organizations. But Bush campaign officials said that 1 million absentee ballots are yet to be counted in California, as well as another million or more in the rest of the country. That raised the possibility that Gore's lead could grow or be wiped out; the final result won't be known for weeks.
''It is conceivable but not likely'' that Bush could win the popular vote, said Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate. Gans estimated that 3.5 million to 4 million votes remain to be counted across the country, but he said most of them are from areas where Gore should run more strongly than Bush.
Glen Johnson and Anne E. Kornblut of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
