1.   A neutral public servant would not try to take advantage of that ambiguity to cut short the manual count, which is allowed under Florida law.

2.   Bush, backed by Harris, said that voting errors that could trigger manual counts were limited to those resulting from a vote-counting machine breakdown.

3.   But his ruling left open the door to a manual count, by allowing the board to supplement whatever numbers itturned over Tuesday by a later count.

4.   But in no uncertain language, he also said there really was no magic hour after which the manual counts may be ignored.

5.   But the risk to the campaign of a manual count was clearly seen as greater than the perception that both sides were reduced to legal squabbling.

6.   Computers will be used to speed up the reporting of preliminary results, but the official count will be based on the manual count of the ballots.

7.   Democrats, arguing for trust in human judgment, are all for the manual counts.

8.   Gore supporters have sought manual counts in four Democratic counties, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Broward and Volusia.

9.   If Palm Beach County proceeds with a countywide manual count, it seems unlikely it could be concluded by Tuesday.