Court considers charge of election irregularities in Seminole County

SANFORD, Florida (CNN) -- Seminole County, Florida's case in state circuit court this morning is concerned with a case filed by a Democratic activist that seeks to invalidate 4,700 absentee ballots in the predominately Republican state.

The Seminole County suit contends County Elections Supervisor Sandy Goard allowed Republican activists to write registration numbers on 4,700 absentee ballot requests, nearly all of them from registered Republicans.

The suit said the ballots should be disallowed because only the voters themselves were supposed to have written their registration numbers.

The suit asks that the absentee ballots stemming from the requests be invalidated or, if they cannot be identified, that all of the county's 15,000 absentee ballots be invalidated.

If the suit prevails, Al Gore would likely gain several thousand additional votes, perhaps more than enough to overtake George W. Bush. Goard has denied contacting Republicans about the missing numbers.