-Caveat Lector-
Ballots Confuse Palm Beach Voters
By Karin Meadows
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2000; 6:13 PM
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. �� Three people filed a lawsuit Wednesday
seeking a new election in Palm Beach County, claiming the
punch-card ballot was so confusing that they accidentally voted
for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Vice President
Al Gore.
The lawsuit came after hundreds of Gore supporters flooded the
Palm Beach County elections office with calls Wednesday, saying
they feared they had mistakenly voted for Buchanan.
Lawyers for the Democratic Party said that the design of the Palm
Beach County ballot is illegal and that they may ask for a
re-vote. But no immediate action was taken by the party.
Buchanan got 3,407 votes for president in the heavily Democratic
county Tuesday, more than he received in any other Florida
county, according to unofficial returns. Statewide, Gore was
behind George W. Bush by fewer than 1,800 votes, and Florida held
the key to the national race.
"It was so hard to tell who and what you were voting for. I
couldn't figure it out, and I have a doctorate," voter Eileen
Klasfeld said.
Two larger counties south of Palm Beach both had much lower
Buchanan results � 789 in Broward County and 561 in Miami-Dade
County. In Duval County, a much more conservative county in
northeast Florida, only 650 Buchanan votes were cast.
The confusion apparently arose from the way Palm Beach County's
punch-card style ballot was laid out for the presidential race.
Candidates are listed in two columns, with holes down the middle
between the columns, to the right or the left of each candidate's
name.
The top hole was for Bush, who was listed at top left; the second
hole was for Buchanan, listed at top right, and the third hole
was for Gore, listed under Bush on the left. Arrows linked the
names with the proper hole, but some voters feared they had
missed the arrows and punched the wrong hole.
"When ballots are placed in the slide for voting, Al Gore and Joe
Lieberman are the second names on the ballot, but the third hole
to punch," Florida Democratic Party Communications Director Bill
Buck said in a statement.
But Clay Roberts, director of the Florida Department of
Elections, said the problem was exaggerated.
"I don't think they are confused. I think they left the polling
place and became confused. The ballot is very straightforward.
You follow the arrow, you punch the location. Then you have voted
for who you intend to elect," said Roberts, a Republican
appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, George W.'s brother.
Florida law specifies that voters mark an X in the blank space to
the right of the name of the candidate they want to vote for.
Jeff Liggio, a lawyer for county Democrats, called the ballot
illegal. "Right means right, doesn't it? The state law says
right. It doesn't mean left," he said.
Don A. Dillman of the American Association for Public Opinion
Research, who has done research on the design of paper
questionnaires, called the ballot confusing.
"I've never seen one set up like this," Dillman said from
Pullman, Wash. "It's very confusing the way they have put things
on the right side together with things on the left side. I can
see why there might be a problem. If you passed over the first
candidate to go for the second candidate, it's logical that you'd
punch the second hole."
Outside the Palm Beach elections office, about 50 outraged
citizens carried signs protesting the ballots.
"It was an injustice. Thousands of people were confused," said
42-year-old Niso Mama. "We have to have another election in this
county."
� 2000 The Associated Press
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