Election 2004: Vote Early and OftenNovember 13 , 2000
Tuesday, October 19, 2004, 12:17 AM
NYT headline: "Recount Fight Widens as Court Case Begins".
And the subtitle: "As Bush Camp Looks to Federal Court, Gore Supporters Embrace States' Rights".
The recount itself widened too; "a divided election board in heavily Democratic Palm Beach County announced that a marathon recount, including a hand count of four sample precincts there, had produced enough discrepancies to warrant an extraordinary manual recount of all 425,000 votes cast in the county."
Volusia County workers began their own recount of 184,019 ballots, starting Nov. 12, a day behind schedule.
Sandra Guard, an election official in Seminole County, was alleged to have allowed Republican Party workers to set up shop in her office for several days and correct errors on thousands of applications for absentee ballots.
And, for an update on hanging chads: Palm Beach used the following standard to decide which chads counted and which didn't. If it was a "hanging chad" (one cornet attached to the ballot), a "swinging chad" (two corners attached), or a "tri-chad" (three corners attached), it would be counted, but if if was a "pregnant chad" (rectangle is punched or dimpled but all corners are attached), it would not be counted.
Problems with the ballots (besides the notorious butterfly ballot) started surfacing today in the news. From Fort Lauderdale:
"A funny thing happened at the polls here and in many other sites in Broward County last week. After waiting in long lines caused by heavy turnout, thousands of people stepped into the voting booths and then, if the results are to be believed, did not vote for president."
Total number of ballots: 558,007. Total ballots with no vote for president counted: 6,686.
Many people voted for Buchanan because of the poor design of the butterfly ballot. We don't have good stats on how many people punched the wrong chad, but "some county officials had heard that voters who made mistakes and asked for a second ballot were being denied them. Under Florida law they are entitled to even a third one if they mess up on the first two."
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