WASHINGTON - Al Gore asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to deny George W. Bush's request that the nation's highest court bar the use of hand-counted election ballots in Florida, arguing such involvement ''would diminish the legitimacy'' of the presidential election.
In papers filed on Thanksgiving night, Gore's lawyers called Bush's request a ''bald attempt to federalize a state court dispute'' and interfere in the Florida balloting.
The Democratic filing also claimed that Bush's court brief contained false and ''partisan accusations regarding the manner in which the Florida recount is proceeding.''
''This court's interference with the normal processes by which questions of state law are resolved, and ... with the ongoing processes by which the president and vice-president of the United States are chosen, would only diminish the legitimacy of the outcome of the election,'' Gore's lawyers argued.
Earlier in the day, the Florida Supreme Court refused to order Miami-Dade County officials to resume a handcount of presidential election ballots, dealing a blow to Gore's efforts to cut into Bush's lead in the state.
Gore had asked the state's highest court in an emergency appeal to restart ballot counting in the county, which they said was ''being frustrated by a deliberate campaign of delay and intimidation of local officials.''
Gore's brief to the nation's high court said Bush was asking the justices ''to interfere with a task that has been expressly delegated to the state of Florida,'' the choosing of presidential electors.
The justices could announce as early as Friday whether they will grant review to the two appeals filed by Bush on Wednesday. The Republican candidate asked the court to grant quick review so the matter could be resolved before Dec. 18, when the electors from the states are scheduled to make the final vote for president.
Bush's lawyers want the justices to review Tuesday's ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that cleared the way for the manual recount in three Democratic-leaning counties with a completion deadline of 5 p.m. Sunday. Separately the Bush campaign asked the high court to bypass a federal appeals court and review a federal judge's decision last week not to block the recount.
''It is difficult to imagine how this court could intervene in the still-ongoing state proceedings so rapidly and clearly as not to deflect and derail the election process in untoward and unprecedented directions,'' Gore's lawyers responded in their filing Thursday.
The Florida Supreme Court justices conferred by conference call, interrupting their Thanksgiving holiday to consider the Miami-Dade County hand-count appeal from the Gore camp.
''The writ is denied without prejudice. No motion for rehearing is allowed,'' the court said in a statement read by spokesman Craig Waters.
Miami-Dade, the largest county in the state, suspended a full manual recount after the Florida court set a Sunday deadline for counties to report adjusted vote totals, arguing they did not have enough time.
Requesting the state court to overturn the county's decision, Gore's campaign argued ''determining the will of the voters cannot be frustrated by the whim of local officials.''
Before the state court's decision, Bush campaign spokeswoman Mindy Tucker brushed off the Gore appeal: ''The court has already extended the statutory deadline for an additional 12 days. ... It seems Al Gore wants the court to keep extending the deadline until he can count the votes enough times to change the result.''
The Gore filing came the morning after Bush lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Florida Supreme Court and bar the use of hand counted ballots.
''The outcome of the election for the presidency of the United States may hang in the balance,'' the Bush lawyers said in urging the high court to take up what it said is essentially a state issue.
Gore's brief to the state court had suggested giving that county an extension of the Sunday deadline. Halting the county's recount would be the same as to ''reject the ballots of thousands of Floridians for reasons of mere administrative convenience.''
The 29-page Gore brief alleged that that board members were intimidated by an escalating campaign of intimidation, which began with personal attacks at board members and election personnel.
''Scores of noisy demonstrators engulfed the counting floors. Many were yelling and some pounding on the doors and windows in close proximity to the election department's staff,'' the brief the state court said. ''Democratic personnel were physically assaulted within yards of the vote counting while in the lobby below prominent Republicans launched vituperative attacks on the Canvassing Board members and its staff.''
The importance of the hand recount in Miami-Dade was indicated by results of a sample recount, the lawyers argued, citing initial figures that gave an additional 116 votes to George Bush and 272 more votes to Gore.
At the very least, the Democrats said the canvassing board should count as many votes as possible by the deadline.