That phrase, buried deep in Florida's election law, is at the center of the impasse between Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush over who really won the Nov. 7 presidential election. An elections observer checks a ballot in Broward County, Florida. Whether the manual recount in several counties will be valid depends on a lawsuit pending in state court. At issue is how broadly that phrase should be interpreted, as it relates to punch-card ballots. Democrats see semi-attached chads as indicators of potential votes that can be identified during manual recounts.
Republicans say leave the vote tallying process to machines.
The dispute leaves the nation in a kind of electoral limbo and facing the prospect that we may never know the full truth. There's no definitive way to say who won this election. It's too murky. There's no truth. The machine recount has Mr. Bush leading by a mere 300 votes in a statewide election where nearly 6 million votes were cast.