I still have a 50-50 chance, says Gore

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, DEC. 6. The Vice-President, Mr. Al Gore, has refused to put a time-frame on his quest for the White House, despite a feeling in the Democratic party that the impasse over the U.S. presidential election is close to being settled in the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday.

Amid reports that he would go beyond the outcome of the battle in the State Supreme Court, Mr. Gore referred to the dispute over thousands of absentee ballots in Florida's Seminole and Martin counties.

It was contended that in Seminole county, thousands of Democratic votes were lost as Republicans were allowed to correct absentee ballot applications. Republicans tampered with ballot application forms by adding voter identification numbers, it was alleged.

Though Mr. Gore is not directly involved in the Seminole County contest, the lawyer involved is a supporter and contributor to the Gore campaign. ``More than enough votes were potentially taken away from Democrats because they were not given the same access that Republicans were,'' the Vice-President said adding that the cases in Seminole and Martin counties could also be headed for the State Supreme Court.

Predicting that he still had a 50-50 chance and that he did not feel ``anything other than optimistic'', Mr. Gore did not directly answer a question whether he would ``hang on'' until the various cases in the State were settled. ``Those are hypotheticals on top of hypotheticals and I am just not comfortable dealing with a hypothetical like that,'' he said.

Mr. Gore's sudden interest in the cases involving the Seminole and Martin counties took many by surprise primarily because his running mate, Mr. Joseph Lieberman, and campaign lawyers had said that the State Supreme Court would have the final say.

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