And a Bush official said the decision by the Miami-Dade canvassing board gave the campaign great confidence: "It's pretty big."

But the Miami-Dade canvassing board did not meet to consider its recount until this morning.

Now that the Miami-Dade canvassing board has decided not to resume its manual recount, I will always wonder: in a situation where every vote truly counted, did my vote count?

The Miami-Dade canvassing board said it was considering dimpled ballots on a case-by-case basis.

Evidence presented at trial indicated that the Miami-Dade board made three different decisions in respect to manual recounts.

Thus, I agree with the trial court that the Miami-Dade board did not abuse its discretion in discontinuing the manual recount.

This afternoon the Miami-Dade canvassing board voted to stop its recount, a decision that Vice President Gore's lawyers said they would challenge in state court.

Murray A. Greenberg, the lawyer for the Miami-Dade canvassing board, spent the evening watching CNN and trying to fathom the intricacies of the opinion.

After the Miami-Dade board voted on Nov. 22 to stop its hand count, Mr. Leahy explained the decision this way: "We simply can't get it done.

Mr. Gore's lawyers said they would continue to press the Miami-Dade canvassing board to resume counting, or to at least report the results of the aborted hand recount on Sunday.