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By WES ALLISON, DAVID KARP and ERIC STIRGUS
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 20, 2000
Broward to count "dimpled' chads
PLANTATION -- In a dramatic switch that could swing a load of votes to Vice President Al Gore, the Broward County Canvassing Board on Sunday said it intends to count hundreds of ballots that weren't clearly punched and that previously had been disqualified.
The board plans to start counting those ballots as soon as it completes the recount of all the other ballots cast, perhaps as early as this evening.
The unanimous decision came after the Broward County attorney advised the board that a court probably would not uphold the board's current standard, which counts a vote only when the rectangular "chad" in the punch-card ballot is clearly separated at two or more corners.
Democrats and Republicans alike agree the change would likely give hundreds of new votes to Gore, who beat George W. Bush 2-1 in Broward County.
County Attorney Ed Dion, a registered Republican appointed by Broward's Democrat-led County Commission, said judges in Broward and Palm Beach last week said the two-corner rule appears too restrictive, and his office has come to agree.
"We believed it was improper for (the board) to continue with that standard," Dion said after the board's 3-0 vote.
Under the new rules, the board will weed through those disqualified ballots and "on a case by case basis" determine for whom the voter intended to vote, he said.
Angry Republicans blasted the decision as "unfair and un-American" and said it was made only because Democrats realized Gore is not picking up enough votes in the manual recounts in heavily Democratic Broward or Palm Beach counties to overcome Bush's slim lead in Florida.
With 410 of Broward's 609 precincts counted, Gore had picked up 107 votes. But in most, if not all of them, the canvassing board found several votes for Gore that didn't count because the chads were insufficiently punched, observers said.
Bush would have won some extra votes, too, but not nearly as many.
"What we're seeing today is a complete cratering of any semblance of standards or fairness in the hand-counting process in Broward," said Ray Sullivan, Bush's deputy press secretary.
"Out of the blue they come out with this, four days into the process," added Shari McCartney, an attorney who has been monitoring the canvassing board for the state and local Republican parties.
Broward's decision also could affect neighboring Palm Beach, which based its standards on Broward's and also is using the two-corner rule.
Republicans blamed the decision on Democratic politics, but Democrats noted that Dion -- the county attorney -- is a registered Republican. So is one of the three members of the canvassing board, Supervisor of Elections Jane Carroll. Although Carroll voted for the change, her attorney also prepared a legal brief for the state Supreme Court that contends Broward's two-corner rule was appropriate.
No one knows how many ballots will now be counted that had been ignored, but board members have filled envelope after fat envelope with them during the hand recount. Democratic and Republican monitors and members of the canvassing board agree there are at least several hundred, and possibly a couple thousand.
Many were clearly marked for one candidate or another but weren't counted because the chads were attached by more than two corners. Many were obviously indented -- called "dimpled" or "pregnant" chads -- while others were partly punched.
In one precinct recounted Sunday, at least 50 such votes were disqualified even though the presidential choices were clear. Thirty-eight would have gone to Gore and eight would have gone to Bush.
Since Wednesday afternoon, 60 teams of four have been counting by hand each of the 588,000 votes cast in the Nov. 7 election.
All ballots that aren't sufficiently punched, as well as any other challenged ballots, are sent to the canvassing board, which makes a determination of whom the vote is for. Ballots that are marked but do not meet the two-corner rule are separated from the others and stuffed into envelopes.
The board did not announce what standards it will use for determining the intent of voters who didn't fully punch through their ballots. Presumably, the three board members would examine each ballot, then reach a consensus about what the vote was.
"The Democrats are not happy with the small, small amount of numbers coming out of Broward County," spat Ed Pozzuoli, chairman of the county Republican Party. "We warned everybody that all the Democrats want to do is continue to count until they get the desired result."
Counting in Broward and Palm Beach resumes at 8 this morning. -- WES ALLISON
WEST PALM BEACH -- In Palm Beach County, where most people expected a hand recount would boost Gore's totals, Bush was actually gaining. Bush was up a net total of 12 votes Saturday with tallies for 31 precincts of 531 precincts completed, according to the Associated Press.
The totals so far show how Palm Beach's decision not to count so-called dimpled ballots had hurt Gore. In six precincts, which heavily favored Gore, the board had not counted 331 ballots where there was no clear vote for either presidential candidate.
In most of these so-called "undercount" ballots, the voter had not pushed the ballot hard enough, leaving only a dimple in the space for Gore or Bush.
Dennis Newman, counsel for the Florida Democratic Party, said Saturday that Democrats had protested 150 dimpled ballots in one precinct alone.
"We believe they are votes and should be counted," Newman said.
Palm Beach's canvassing board originally looked to Broward County to set standards on the dimpled ballot issue, wanting uniformity on standards from state to state. But after Broward changed its standards Sunday, Palm Beach did not follow suit.
"As far as I know, we are committed to the standard," said county spokeswoman Denise Cote. "How can they change in the middle?"
Republicans in Palm Beach criticized Broward's change.
"I don't think you move the goal post in the middle of the ballgame," said Scott McClellan, a spokesman for the Bush campaign.
Outside the Palm Beach Emergency Operations Center, the Bush camp brought in surrogates such as former Florida Secretary of State Jim Smith to spread their message about the recount.
Republican volunteers also directed reporters to veterans -- one wearing a neck brace and sitting in a motorized scooter -- who had come to speak out against Democratic moves to disqualify military overseas votes.
"You don't give up the right to vote when you are in the military," said Ralph Wilson, 48, of Jupiter who said he had served in the Navy as a commander for 20 years.
"It's not a political issue," added Bill Baggett, 58, of Juno Beach, veterans director for the Royal Palm Memorial Garden cemetery. "It's an American issue." -- DAVID KARP
MIAMI -- Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections David Leahy called it an honest mistake, but Bush campaign supporters saw it as something more troubling.
Two dozen county workers used machines Sunday to weed out improperly punched ballots from among the 653,963 cast on Nov. 7. The goals: to shorten the time needed for the full hand recount that starts today, and to avoid workers making decisions about the questionable ballots.
Sunday morning, Leahy noticed one employee placing properly punched ballots into envelopes reserved for questionable ballots.
"It was like opening-night jitters," Leahy said. "Some of my staffers are not used to the (television) cameras."
GOP supporters were not happy with Leahy's explanation, or with the way many of the weary employees, who came in on their day off, handled the ballots.
GOP observers accused workers of manhandling ballots and said "hundreds" of chads, pieces of paper that covered the punch hole, fell to the floor as ballots were pushed through the machines. This damaged the ballots, they argued.
County officials denied the allegations, although they admitted one worker dropped a tray of ballots, causing hundreds to fall to the floor. Leahy said they weren't damaged. Officials said all of the chads on the floor were from ballots counted in previous elections, not from Sunday's process.
"I guess we're not very tidy," Leahy said.
Democratic supporters accused their GOP counterparts of waging a "PR campaign without facts."
On Friday, the county's canvassing board voted 2-1 in favor of hand counting all the ballots in Miami-Dade County, which Democrat Al Gore won. Democratic Party lawyers think Gore could gain another 300 to 500 votes through a recount, which is not expected to be completed until Dec. 1. -- ERIC STIRGUS