Why you need a hand count in Palm County.......The county's three-member election board took testimony today from authorities including a former Palm Beach supervisor of elections, who said county's punch-card voting machines have been flawed for years, causing votes not to be counted.
``We had a big drop-off in the last election and in the previous presidential election,'' said Jackie Winchester. ``We never saw a pattern like this -- with all these people coming to the polls and voting in the other columns and not voting for president.'' Of Palm Beach County's 432,892 votes cast, about 10,000 weren't counted by the machines, county officials said.
One of the machines' designers, William Rouverol, 83, told the board the machines can malfunction if ballots are ``too hard.'' In that case, punched out chads ``are likely to accumulate,'' making it difficult for voters to pierce the card.
``A hand count is the best way to fix the machine's shortcomings,'' he said. |
