Partisans allege mishandling of ballots, attempts to stall process.
But the hand counting showed Al Gore continuing to whittle away at Bush's margin. Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, enlisted by the Bush campaign to help undermine the effort, asserted that paper ballots had been mislaid, mishandled and deliberately miscounted. Al Gore wants a hand recount because it guarantees the will of the people will be reflected. The Bush campaign is doing everything possible to impede that from happening. In a close election, that percentage will affect the results of an election.