On Friday, the Board of Elections left two questionable ballots unopened.

Soon, the matter returned to the Rules Committee, which created a special staff panel to examine 3,500 questionable ballots that had been shipped to Washington.

When they finished their work on Wednesday, there were still about 10,500 questionable ballots that canvassing board members had to count themselves.

It is an awkward case for the Gore high command, however, because he is fighting on other fronts to include rather than exclude questionable ballots.

There were a lot of "questionable" ballots that had to be set aside for determination.

The following questionable ballots were found: *344 ballots with no evidence they were cast on or before Election Day.

The dispute centers on what standards to use in determining the validity of questionable ballots.

Everyone involved in the dispute says the goal is to limit and speed any fights over questionable ballots.

They said the changes would eliminate many of the likely disputes over questionable ballots.

If those questionable ballots were to be voided, she said, they would be more than enough to overturn the election results.