The US Supreme Court, divided 5-4, intervened once again on Saturday in the deadlocked presidential race, granting George W Bush`s plea to halt the Florida vote count on which Al Gore had pinned his best hopes of winning the White House. It was the latest and most dramatic split so far in a season of political division. The high court ordered both sides to present oral arguments on Monday on the underlying legal issues in the marathon recount case and one justice suggested that Bush might hold an upper hand in the court`s eventual decision. The court`s decision froze the recount of thousands of ballots in dozens of Florida counties just hours after they had started. By midday, Gore had picked up two votes, reducing Bush`s lead to a bare 191, according to an unofficial Associated Press count. Saturday`s decision was the latest abrupt turn in an unprecedented, 32-day marathon that has left the nation in uncertainty and suspense. Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Sandra Day O`Connor voted to halt the counts. Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented. The majority`s order was contained in one brief paragraph. Scalia wrote an unusual accompanying statement making plain that he believes Bush had the stronger argument. "It suffices to say that the issuance of the stay suggests that a majority of the court, while not deciding the issues presented, believe that the petitioner has a substantial probability of success," Scalia wrote. Before the court`s intervention, a still ebullient Gore held a conference call with supporters. "Years from now, we`ll be telling our grandchildren about this," the vice president said. "You all will be able to take pride in the fact that, despite great pressure, you fought valiantly for our democratic values." Returning to the confusion of dimpled, swinging and hanging chads, election officials had been examining thousands of ballots where counting machines failed to register a vote for president. They operated under the watchful eye of Republican and Democratic observers and under a gag order imposed by the state judge who imposed a deadline of 2 pm on Sunday. Bush attorneys implored the US Supreme Court to stop the process, and argued in Florida that the month-old ballots had "degraded" to the point of being untrustworthy. Gore lawyers said the "will of the voters" must be heard. Though Gore won the popular vote, the presidency is decided by the Electoral College, which distributes votes state by state. Florida`s 25 electoral votes would give Gore or Bush the electoral majority they need to win the White House. The state`s electoral votes were awarded to Bush two weeks ago when the secretary of state certified a state count that prompted Gore`s successful challenge Friday before the divided Florida Supreme Court.

In Tallahassee, the state court held its ground, refusing Bush`s appeal to stop the count to give federal courts time to rule. The court split 4-3 in ordering a new look at about 45,000 so-called undervotes. Bush also took his case to a federal appeals court in Atlanta. Thirty-two days after the election, there was plenty of uncertainty in a race that had seemed likely to end Friday with a Bush victory. The court-ordered count resurrected Gore`s hopes and threw the race into uncharted political and legal territory that could make Congress the final arbiter of who will be the nation`s 43rd president. Bush spent Saturday at his Texas ranch; Gore was at the vice president`s mansion. Democrats and Republicans flooded into Florida to monitor the count and President Bill Clinton, at the White House, applauded the Florida Supreme Court`s ruling. "The more people feel there was an accurate count, the more legitimacy will be conferred on whoever the eventual winner is," he said. Gore spoke to three dozen Democratic supporters and, according to an aide, he said, "a vote is not just a piece of paper, a punched card or a chad. It is a human voice and we must not let those voices be silenced - not for today, not for tomorrow, not for as long as this country stands for the principle that the people must be heard and heeded." At the start of the day, Bush led Gore by 193 votes statewide out of 6 million ballots cast. There were 9,000 undervotes in Democratic-leaning Miami-Dade, offering Gore his best chance to leapfrog ahead. The Republicans said the only way to avoid double counting of votes in Miami-Dade would be to conduct a full manual recount of all 600,000 ballots there. In Duval County, where nearly 5,000 ballots were to be counted, officials awaited a shipment of computer hardware and software to help them sort through roughly 265,000 votes and find the ones needed to be recounted. In Washington, Bush and Gore flooded the Supreme Court with motions. Bush`s lawyers filed an appeal Friday to stop the count, and Gore`s attorneys responded Saturday morning. Bush lawyers returned to the court to answer Gore`s team. "If this confusing, inconsistent and largely standardless process is not stayed pending this court`s review, the integrity of this presidential election could be seriously undermined," Bush argued.
"Whatever tabulations result from his process will be incurable in the public consciousness and, once announced, cannot be retracted," no matter how flawed, Bush lawyers said. In reply, Gore`s lawyers said, "Their surprising assertion is that a candidate for public office can be irreparably harmed by the process of discerning and tabulating the will of the voters." Bureau Report