>"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida's high court gave the go-ahead to manual ballot recounts in the state's disputed presidential election Friday.
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>Within minutes, officials in Palm Beach County announced they would swiftly begin a manual recount — as requested by Gore's campaign.
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>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.
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>The court's interim, or preliminary ruling, means it did not rule out further legal challenges to the recounts."
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>NPR said this was a unanimous decision.
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>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.
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>I'm continuing to predict that the Federal courts will not get involved.
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>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.
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>Peter

You're missing the whole point. Of course they are allowing the recount. That was never an issue as far as the law is concerned. They can recount these ballots for the next 100 years. It's their right under Florida law. IMO, the Democrats wasted precious recount time waiting for the inevitable. I also think the GOP was mistaken in their suppression efforts.

What is of vital concern is whether the results of these recounts will ever be factored in. I think that it will be very interesting to see if any federal court (state courts won't matter as the losing side will certainly appeal) will be willing to overturn Ms. Harris' discretionary right, again under Florida law, to disallow the recounted votes. She claimed she and a legal team came up with distinct reasons... let's see 'em!