Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, the Democratic candidate for vice president, said today that Florida election officials should reconsider their rejection of hundreds of military ballots from overseas, even if they might not comply with the law.

Mr. Lieberman's comments, a retreat from the position the Democrats had taken since Friday, came after they were stung by Republican charges that they had made a concerted effort to disenfranchise members of the military. While Republicans painted their opponents as being willing to use any means to manipulate vote totals in the extraordinary, tense and prolonged Florida count, Democrats complained that they were losing a nasty public relations battle for simply insisting on following the law as it has been applied in the past.

''My own point of view, if I was there, I would give the benefit of the doubt to ballots coming in from military personnel, generally,'' Mr. Lieberman said on NBC's ''Meet the Press.'' Of the local canvassing boards, he said, ''If they have the capacity, I'd urge them to go back and take another look, because again, Al Gore and I don't want to ever be part of anything that would put an extra burden on the military personnel abroad.''

The conciliatory words came a day after Gov. George W. Bush's campaign and its surrogates accused the Democrats of a systematic campaign to have military votes, which are presumed to strongly favor Mr. Bush, thrown out, while some service members voiced anger at that possibility. [Page A18.]