"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida's high court gave the go-ahead to manual ballot recounts in the state's disputed presidential election Friday.

Within minutes, officials in Palm Beach County announced they would swiftly begin a manual recount — as requested by Gore's campaign.

The state Supreme Court ruled in a case filed by two South Florida counties, Palm Beach and Broward, that asked the court to settle whether and how the counts should continue.

The court's interim, or preliminary ruling, means it did not rule out further legal challenges to the recounts."

NPR said this was a unanimous decision.

This looks very bad for Bush. One can asume that if the Florida Supreme Court was inclined to not allow the hand count, then they would not waste the time of the hundreds of folks in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

I'm continuing to predict that the Federal courts will not get involved.

I imagine that Secretary of State Katherine Harris will attempt to announce Bush as the Florida winner on Saturday and the Supreme Court will enjoin her from doing so.

Peter