-Caveat Lector-
19,120 Palm Beach ballots thrown out
By KARIN MEADOWS, Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (November 9, 2000 12:35 a.m. EST
http://www.nandotimes.com) - More than 19,000 ballots were disqualified
on election night in a Florida county where confusion over the punch-card
voting system led to a flood of complaints and a lawsuit Wednesday.
Election officials said Wednesday that 19,120 ballots from Palm Beach
County had showed votes for more than one presidential candidate. Those
votes were nullified and not included in the count.
"That total is a high number," said Palm Beach County Commissioner
Carol Roberts, who is part of the canvassing board that is conducting a
recount of the presidential race. Only 3,783 voters made the same mistake
on the U.S. Senate section of the ballot.
On Wednesday, hundreds of Al Gore supporters called the county elections
office, saying the punch-card ballot was so confusing they thought they may
have accidentally voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan instead
of Gore.
Three people sued, seeking a new election.
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.
In the Palm Beach County recount completed Wednesday night, Buchanan
picked up 5 votes for a total of 3,412 votes, Gore gained 751 votes for
269,696, and George W. Bush gained 108 votes for 152,954.
Statewide, Gore was trailing Bush by fewer than 1,000 votes with the
recount completed in about half the state's counties. Florida holds 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."
In Pinellas County, meanwhile, election officials ordered a recount of the
recount late Wednesday, saying some ballots weren't properly counted.
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