21.   Lawyers for Vice President Al Gore filed an urgent plea with the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday asking that the court itself begin counting disputed ballots immediately.

22.   LePore and Burton favored a stricter standard and generally outvoted Roberts on disputed ballots.

23.   Meanwhile, both sides continued to argue over recounting disputed ballots.

24.   New York Times attorney Adam Liptak also indicates that his paper is likely to be part of a media consortium seeking to inspect the disputed Florida ballots.

25.   On the other was a mass of lawyers and party activists intently watching the process or chattering on their cell phones or frantically pointing at a disputed ballot.

26.   Other Gore surrogates suggested that Bush could permanently damage his presidency if he were to win Florida without a manual recount of the disputed ballots.

27.   Republicans are conducting their own count of disputed ballots in Florida.

28.   The board has set aside the other disputed ballots.

29.   The canvassing board already planned to meet on Friday and Saturday to consider the disputed ballots.

30.   The canvassing board was planning to meet Friday through Sunday to decide the disputed ballots.