Al Gore had a small lead over George W. Bush in the 54,000-plus votes cast. Hisp anic voters alleged they were required to produce two forms of identification when only one was required. The central Florida county has a large Puerto Rican community. Palm Beach County early Sunday awarded 36 more votes to Gore and took three away from Bush following a machine count of all 531 precincts. The county, on a 2-1 vote, ordered a manual recount of all 425,000 ballots cast.
Election officials meet today to decide how to proceed.
Polk County election officials today plan to certify new vote totals that would give Bush an additional 104 votes and seven to Gore. The votes turned up in a machine rescanning of ballots in dozens of precincts. Broward County plans to begin a hand recount of about 6,000 ballots in three precincts today. If major problems are found, authorities will consider a full hand count of all precincts. Miami-Dade authorities plan to meet Tuesday to decide whether to order a hand recount.