Errors, tired workers compromise recount
By Jeff Ostrowski, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 19, 2000
Republican criticism of the accuracy of Palm Beach County's hand recount intensified Saturday, with George W. Bush supporters warning of misplaced and dropped ballots and exhausted ballot counters.
With about 930 Florida votes separating Bush and Democrat Al Gore, the reliability of the recount became a popular target.
At Palm Beach County's Emergency Operations Center, site of the recount of 462,350 ballots, Bush spokesman Tucker Eskew pointed to a temporary mix-up of six to nine ballots cast for Bush that nearly were credited to Gore.
And in a press conference in Texas, Montana Gov. Marc Racicot listed a litany of problems, including chads affixed to ballots with tape and ballots that were dropped and stepped on. Errors are inevitable, the Republican said, because tired workers are recounting the ballots.
But canvassing board Chairman Charles Burton, a Democrat, called the GOP charges spin. Republican observers and attorneys in Palm Beach County watch every move made by the counters and the canvassing board and freely object to any problems, Burton said.
Through midday Saturday, only a handful of ballots were questionable enough to raise strenuous objections, he said.
Still, the potential for costly mistakes looms.
At about 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, a counting team noticed that some ballots sorted Friday night were in the wrong piles when counting began Saturday morning.
As a result, "six to nine" votes for Bush almost were credited to Gore, said Bush spokesman Eskew. Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore set aside the ballots, but it was unclear whether the entire precinct from which the votes were cast would be recounted.
"This is the most serious event in a string of troubling events," Eskew said.
Eskew also accused LePore of knowing about Saturday morning's mix-up -- but not attempting to fix it.
"She knew about it and did nothing to correct it," Eskew said. "That raises the question of a coverup."
Montana's Racicot pointed to taped-over chad as another sign of problems. But Burton downplayed that issue, too.
Jeff Kahrs, a Republican observing the counting, said Saturday that he saw at least three ballots where the chads in the Bush column had been taped.
"The pieces of Scotch tape had been carefully cut with scissors and were meant to cover a precise amount of space on the ballot," he said. "Obviously, the ballots have been tampered with."
Burton downplayed the three absentee ballots that had been found with tape. All were ruled invalid and not counted.
"I really do not want to get into this," he told reporters.
It appeared that absentee voters inadvertently punched two holes for president, then taped the chad onto the hole that was mistakenly punched.
"Is that ballot fraud? Absolutely not," he said.
Meanwhile, at 1 a.m. Friday, an elderly man counting a stack of Gore votes dropped the ballots on the floor, and chads flew. LePore picked up a handful of chads that had shaken loose.
The canvassing board decided to recount that entire precinct on Friday, leaving six hours of counting for naught.
Eskew, in the counting room at the time, said 20 to 50 ballots were dropped on the floor and stepped on. One counter angrily replied that the number of dropped ballots was closer to 10.
In either case, it was clear that tempers flared as the first night of counting dragged on until 3 a.m.
"Human error is a major issue," Eskew said. "Fatigue, of course, is a major issue."
"You can't handle a half million ballots without somebody dropping one," Burton said.
On Friday, one observer complained that counters were holding ballots too far from the edges and running their fingers down the line for presidential votes.
On Saturday morning, most counters seemed to handle ballots gently, holding them by the edges like old family photos. But some still banged the ballots on the table so they lined up.
But Burton said for the most part the recount is simple arithmetic.
"There are very, very few of those where you even have to determine," Burton said. "I don't think it has been that difficult."
Staff writer Joe Capozzi and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
jeff_ostrowski@pbpost.com |
