That isn't as easily done as you suggest. I voted in Marion County, which
is North Central Florida and our ballots were very similar to those used
in Palm Beach County. In fact there were problems here also, but we're a
small county and there wasn't much noted in the press about it, except we
really found out about it when the Florida Supreme Court ordered the
recount, which terminated before it began. When I punched my ballot I
voted for Nader (also not my best choice)* so the hole was a bit easier to
find but admittedly it was still very confusing and I recall having to put
more pressure on getting the stylus to punch all the way through than I
thought necessary and none of the holes lined up with the arrows. None of
them. It took me almost an hour in our small county at my precinct, which
was a Baptist Church, filled with people there to vote and long lines. I'm
sure NO ONE would even consider going back and waiting another 45 minutes
to an hour to get another card or especially to admit in front of all
those people that they may have made a mistake. Looking at the ballots to
see if the holes were all the way through was not a good indicator because
once you extracted the ballot you could not tell which numbers represented
which candidate. It was what we use to call in the service a "cluster
fuck."

I could not help but remember the old clunkers with the levers that were
so easy to use and how much better it would have been even to have had
those to use in lieu of this lousy system we had. I'm sure there were many
who made the mistake of either not perferating the hole in their ballot or
over punching and I believe the count was extraordinarily high for
overcounts --- due no doubt to this very confusing butterfly ballot and
the fact the machine was old and holes did not line up with the arrows and
if like Miami, they probably had not been cleaned and were full of chads.

I don't think there was much of a concern for whether we counted or
not. The intent was to count more Republican votes and that is what they
did.

TheGolem
http://pnews.org/

*The best choice is not to compromise and to vote socialist:
 PEOPLE INSTEAD OF PROFITS!
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TheGolem
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On Fri, 15 Dec 2000, Jeff Shaddock wrote:

> The interview sent by 'The Golem/PNEWS' makes some good points but skirts
> the real issue: democratic voters who 'mis-voted' ie puched twice, didn't
> punch all the way etc are at least partially to blame. I understand that
> often the 'clear intent of the voter' can be determined and agree that it
> SHOULD be done. However, the democratic voters who did not vote properly
> should bear some of the burden; ask for another card, or MAKE SURE YOU PUNCH
> A CLEAN HOLE to make sure that your vote has the potential to be counted by
> machines.
>
> I agree that the system was/is stacked against AG & the Democrats in
> Florida, but it is the citizens who voted improperly that allowed those
> measures to be effective.
>
> J.
> _________________________________________________________________________
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>

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