19,000 Fla. Ballots Spoiled;
Is Confusion to Blame?
Thursday, November 9, 2000
The Bush campaign said Thursday the disqualification of thousands of
ballots in Palm Beach County, Fla. is a "routine and predictable event."
A total of 19,120 ballots in the Florida
county were disqualified on election
night and not counted because they
showed votes for more than one
presidential candidate. Complaints
were filed by some voters claiming they
were confused by the presidential
ballot. Three voters filed lawsuits
seeking a new election.
"That total is a high number," said
Palm Beach County Commissioner
Carol Roberts, a Democrat who is part
of the canvassing board that is
conducting a recount of the
presidential race.
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer sees it
differently. "In the 1996 presidential election, 14,872 ballots were
invalidated for double counting in Palm Beach County, a figure
comparable to the number of ballots dismissed this year, considering this
year's higher turn out," he said.
Robert Richie, executive director of the Center for Voting and Democracy,
said that 19,000 ballots disqualified out of Palm Beach County's 422,650
ballots (about 5 percent thrown out) "would be considered high. ... That is
not acceptable to have one out of 20 people not being able to cast ballots
acceptably."
As to the Bush camp statement that almost 15,000 were junked in the
1996 election, Richaie said "that's high too."
"(It seems) they're doing some poor voter education work there. That's
unusually high in the context of most elections. They have a system that
really should be fixed there. Typically (the number of disqualified ballots
should be) below two percent, I would think."
Hundreds of Al Gore supporters called the county elections office on
Wednesday saying the "butterfly" style punch-card ballot was so confusing
they thought they may have accidentally voted for Reform Party candidate
Pat Buchanan instead of Gore.
"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.
Democrats have questioned the seemingly disproportionate number of
votes Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan received in Palm Beach
County as evidence of the confusion.
Fleischer argued the Buchanan votes were no mistake. "Palm Beach
Country is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that's why Pat Buchanan
received 3,407 votes there," he said.
He said according to the Florida Department of State, 16,695 voters in
Palm Beach County are registered to parties supporting Buchanan — the
Independent Party, the Reform Party, or the American Reform Party — an
increase of 110 percent since the 1996 presidential election.
In the rest of Florida, he said, the increase in registration for these parties
was only about 38%. And in neighboring Broward County, only 476 voters
are registered to these parties, he said.
"Given the facts, what happened on Election Night in Palm Beach County
— a county whose elections are run by a Democrat — is an
understandable event," Fleischer said. "The Democrats who are
politicizing and distorting these routine and predictable events risk doing
our democracy a disservice."
Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore, a Democrat,
said she designed the ballot on two pages to make it easier for elderly
voters to read.
But lawyers for her own party said 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 Wednesday.
Reeve Bright,
lawyer for the
Republican
Party of Palm
Beach
County, said
just because
more than
19,000
voters
punched the
ballot twice
doesn't
mean they
intended to
vote for Gore.
"Some could have been Bush votes," Bright said.
With all precincts reporting and following the recount, Buchanan had
3,412 votes for president in the heavily Democratic county Tuesday, more
than he received in any other Florida county, according to unofficial
returns. Gore received 269,696 votes, and Bush received 152,954 after the
recount was complete. Gore's total in the county was up 751 votes in the
first count. Bush gained 108 votes.
Statewide, Gore was behind George W. Bush by fewer than 800 votes,
and Florida held the key to the national race.
In Palm Beach, Buchanan received 3,412 votes in the recount. 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.
The lawsuit filed by three residents says state law requires the
Democratic presidential candidate to be second on the ballot.
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.
— Fox News' Matt Gross and Patrick Riley, and the Associated Press
contributed to this report
foxnews.com |
