JERUSALEM (AP) — In a race that has come down to a few hundred votes, absentee ballots cast by the thousands of Floridians living in Israel could make the difference for Al Gore over George W. Bush, Democratic Party activists in Israel said Monday.

The assumption is that most of the Floridians voted for Gore, not only because most Israeli-Americans identify with the Democrats, but also because Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Gore's running mate, could become the first Jewish vice president.

"Lo and behold, our votes could really make a difference," said Karyn London, 42, from Hollywood, Fla. She and her husband received their absentee ballots five days before the election and mailed them back Nov. 5. Both said they voted for Gore.

Florida Secretary Katherine Harris released a statement saying that all absentee ballots must be tallied by Saturday morning.

The Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, the group that offers services and social activities to U.S. immigrants, estimates 100,000 American citizens live here. Most are dual citizens — the United States allows its people to take Israeli citizenship without surrendering their American passports and their right to vote in U.S. elections.

For Deborah Inbar, 42, it was the first time she has ever voted in either country, and she cast her ballot for Gore and Lieberman. Inbar, from West Palm Beach, said, "I may really have a chance of determining who is the next president." If her ballot isn't counted for technical reasons, she said, it would be like "a slap in the face."

She said she was "extremely motivated" to vote because Lieberman was on the ticket.

Sheldon Schorer, a leader of the Israel branch of the international group Democrats Abroad, estimated there are 5,000-8,000 Floridians among the Americans in Israel, including about 4,000 eligible voters. He said as many as 2,800 may have voted, based on previous elections.

No accurate count was available, because there are several different ways to vote by absentee ballot. Some approached the Association of Americans and Canadians or the local groups, Democrats Abroad and Republicans Abroad, for absentee ballots. Others turned to the U.S. Embassy, while many registered directly with their home states and received ballots by mail.

It was impossible to know how many absentee ballots would be coming into Florida. An informal survey of 61 of the state's 67 election supervisors found that they had mailed out more than 18,500 overseas ballots. Of those, about half had been returned and the majority of them counted. It was not immediately known how many ballots have yet to be counted.

Inbar, who has lived in Israel for 21 years, said she was troubled by the prospect that the winner of the popular vote might not become president, because the electoral college has the final say. "I find it difficult to understand," she said.

Lieberman's candidacy was not the only factor motivating Israeli-Americans to vote for Gore, said Schorer. "Bush's father was not very good for Israel," he recalled.

George Bush's administration was marked by frequent disputes with Israel's government of the early 1980s, headed by hard-liner Yitzhak Shamir. In 1990, Bush's secretary of state, James A. Baker III, who is now representing Republican interests in Florida, read out the telephone number of the White House switchboard as he testified before the House Foreign Affairs committee, and told the Israelis to call "when you're serious" about making peace with the Arabs.

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