ATLANTA (AP) — Appeals Court judges asked a Democratic Party attorney Tuesday why it was constitutional to do hand recounts of presidential votes only in Florida's three largest counties, all of which are predominantly Democratic.

"The essence of justice is everybody plays by the same rules and we have to know what those rules are," said Judge Stanley S. Birch Jr., who was appointed by George W. Bush's father, former President Bush.

Democrats' attorney Teresa Wynn Roseborough, facing pointed questions from several of the seven Republican nominees on the 12-judge 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, insisted that every person has a right to have their vote counted accurately.

The court heard arguments in back-to-back hearings Tuesday in two separate but related appeals from supporters of GOP candidate Bush, who want the court to throw out any presidential election results that include manual recounts, which narrowed Bush's lead over Democrat Al Gore.

Both cases argue that hand recounts in selected counties make those votes more important than ballots cast elsewhere. They also argue that changing standards on how to count questionable ballots are unfair.

"This case was brought to bring consistency and equality to voting rights," said Bush attorney Theodore Olson.

The Florida Democratic Party, a defendant in both cases, has argued there is no need for the appeals court to act since manual recounts are finished and Bush has been certified the winner in the state by 537 votes.

"Why isn't this case moot? Why isn't this appeal moot?" Judge Charles Wilson, appointed by President Clinton, asked Olson.

Olson noted that Gore is still contesting the election in court.

"No one has won this election, as far as I know," he said. "It's still very up in the air."

In the second case, brought by Bush supporters in Brevard County, Fla., attorney James Bopp Jr. from the James Madison Center for Free Speech in Indiana argued that Florida's process disenfranchised some voters by allowing "a two-tiered system to recount some and not other" votes.

The manual recounts "placed everlasting doubt on who is the winner of this election. Either side may forever say that the results were affected by either the inclusion or exclusion of manual recounts," Bopp said. "The court can wipe the slate clean of manual recounts under this fundamentally flawed procedure."

In both cases, Judge Rosemary Barkett, a Clinton appointee, asked whether the appeals court had power to act in the case, asking whether the plaintiffs could show imminent, irreparable harm.

Bopp said the voters he represents already have sustained harm and don't know what further to expect because other appeals are continuing in Florida courts.

Roseborough, the Florida Democratic Party's lawyer, said the federal appeals court cannot decide the two cases now because appeal avenues still are available to the plaintiffs in Florida.

Outside the courtroom, a small but enthusiastic group of onlookers mainly supporting Bush carried signs and demonstrated, their chants occasionally audible in the courtroom.

The Bush appeals in Atlanta become more important if Gore gets a hand recount of ballots in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties and finds enough votes to overtake his rival.

Florida Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls on Monday rejected Gore's request for a manual recount of thousands of contested ballots in Florida's presidential election from the two counties.

Gore's lawyers appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, and the justices have agreed to hear arguments in the case Thursday morning. Gore running mate Joseph Lieberman said Tuesday that the Florida high court would be the "final arbiter" of the election dispute.

"If Gore can't find votes in the contest litigation down in state court in Florida, then the 11th Circuit case and the (U.S.) Supreme Court case are moot," said Emory University law professor Richard D. Freer.