26,000 NEW DISQUALIFIED BALLOTS FOUND IN A REPUBLICAN DISTRICT THAT THE DEMOCRATS DON'T WANT RECOUNTED...
More Fla. Ballots Said Disqualified
By Ron Word
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, Nov. 11, 2000; 1:06 p.m. EST
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. –– About 26,000 ballots with more than one
presidential candidate or no candidate marked were disqualified in Duval
County and never counted, election officials said Saturday.
Duval County is as solidly Republican as Palm Beach County is
Democratic. Texas Gov. George W. Bush carried Duval County by more
than 44,000 votes. Officials said there was no way to know how the
nullified ballots affected the race between Bush and Vice President Al
Gore.
In Tuesday's vote, 21,942 ballots were nullified when voters punched their
ballots for two candidates for president. An additional 4,967 did not vote for
president or did not punch the ballot hard enough for their vote to be
registered, said Susan Tucker Johnson, a spokeswoman for Duval County
Supervisor of Elections John Stafford.
The disqualified ballots represent about 9 percent of the 291,626 cast
Tuesday.
The ballot Duval County used was of a different design than the disputed
"butterfly" ballot used in Palm Beach County. In Duval County, 10
presidential candidates and one write-in candidate were listed on two pages.
At the bottom of the first page, in larger, bolder type, voters were instructed
to turn the page for more choices in the presidential race.
Voters, Johnson said, probably picked one candidate on the first page and
then voted for another presidential candidate on the second page.
Mike Langton, chairman of the northeast Florida Gore campaign, reacted
angrily to news of the 26,000 nullified votes. He said he had learned of them
too late to ask for a manual recount, which under Florida law must be
requested within 72 hours of the election.
He said Stafford had told him only 200 to 300 votes were nullified. Johnson
said Langton had misunderstood what Stafford had said.
"I sure as hell would have requested a manual recount if I had known
27,000 votes were nullified," Langton said. "We were harmed because we
didn't find out in time to ask for a recount."
"He (Stafford) was either incompetent or he was purposely misleading,"
Langton said.
"I don't know what is going on, but it rises to the level of hanky-panky,"
Langton said.
Langton said he had notified the state and national Gore campaigns of the
situation.
Mike Hightower, who represents the Bush campaign in northeast Florida,
said earlier the problems were voter error and not mistakes on the part of
election officials.
He did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
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