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The Florida Recount: Gore Camp Ready for Supreme Court Fight

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: Aides for Vice President Al Gore are focused on the Florida recounts as they look forward to Monday in the state Supreme Court.

Following the Gore team for us this weekend is Chris Black in Washington -- Chris.

CHRIS BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Gene, within the hour the Gore campaign will be filing a brief before the Supreme Court of Florida. It poses what the campaign is calling a simple and straightforward question. Gore campaign sources tell CNN that the basic question is whether lawfully cast and counted ballots should be included in the vote total that will determine the presidency.

The Gore campaign will argue in its brief that Florida state law requires the Secretary of State Katherine Harris to count the ballots now being counted by hand on Florida's gold coast. And the Gore team will ask the court to order the secretary of state to count those ballots in the final certification.

The Gore campaign is trying to focus attention today, though, onto the hand counts going on in those counties, hoping to begin to roll up some numbers to show the public that Al Gore got more votes than George Bush in that state.

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DOUG HATTAWAY, GORE CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: It's clear the American people want to see this done right. They've been following the story very closely, as we all know very well, and I think they're very much aware that those votes have not been counted yet, I think are patient to see that they are counted.

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BLACK: The vice president is still at home in Washington today with nothing public planned on his schedule. Gore campaign officials say the absentee ballot count went much, much better than they had anticipated. They always said that if they kept the Bush gain to under 1,000 votes they could make it up, they believed, in the recount. And they did far better than that -- Bush only gained 630 votes.

Meanwhile, there's a real street fight going on in those recounts. Gore operatives report that the counting is painfully slow because of challenges by both sides. In one Palm Beach County, for example, there were 428 challenges. Now, it's important to remember, Gene, that the election is already over and these votes are not going to go away. So one operative working for Gore said, they can slow us down, but we're still in this game -- Gene.

RANDALL: Chris Black in Washington.

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