St. Petersburg Times
Lost votes

A special report: St. Petersburg Times

The St. Petersburg Times and several other media organizations analyzed 175,010 Florida ballots that were cast but not counted during last year's presidential election.


Lost votes:
Story lineup

  • Recount: Bush
  • Without overvotes Gore was doomed
  • The public will be the ultimate judge
  • Confusion, inexperience led 2,500 voters to err
  • Why do we look back now? Because we choose to know
  • Across state, chaos takes hold
  • Republicans, Democrats meet analysis with a shrug
  • Despite election fixes, questions remain
  • 931 votes hinged on a chad in bay area
  • Citrus County: Ballot type minimized problems
  • Hernando: County voting error is slight
  • Pasco: Recount would not alter county vote
  • Hillsborough: Distinct precincts, similar problems
  • Pinellas: a question of race
  • Credits

    • Lost votes: The data
    Click here to view the NORC data

    Times chat
    Special elections chat: Times metro editor Tim Nickens answered reader questions on this special report on TimesChat. Read the transcript.

    Lost votes: Related graphics

    67 Counties 67 Recounts
    A look at what would’ve happened in the 2000 Florida presidential election if the U.S. Supreme Court had not intervened

    Is this a vote? You be the judge
    Would you count the ballots on this page?

    Florida’s confusing ballots
    Poor ballot design confused thousands of people-- four of the worst examples

    Percent of error
    Other states and the worst counties

    What would have happened if...
    ... the U.S. Supreme Court hadn't stopped the recount?

    Where the problems were
    A look at some of the counties with many rejected ballots

    Two days of chaos
    Memos from court rulings

    Where votes didn't count
    Pinellas precincts where people were most likely to cast invalid ballots

    Tale of two precincts
    Two precincts in Hillsborough County that had the most errors

    Bay area results

    Florida’s 10 big election problems
    Five problems that were fixed and five problems that were not fixed

    The changing face of Florida elections

    Pages in time
    A look back at some of the front pages from some of the memorable days following the Nov. 7 elections

    Photo gallery: A last look
    Expert legal teams. Bush operatives. Gore operatives. Recount. Recuse. Response. Butterflies. Certify. Criticize. And all forms of chad – pregnant, dimpled, hanging and tri. Any other news in the nation stopped for these words and images for five weeks last year.



    The butterfly ballot county

    19,345 LOST VOTES when Palm Beach County voters selected more than one candidate. 5,352 punched holes for both Gore and Pat Buchanan.

    © St. Petersburg Times, published November 11, 2001

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    SUMMARY: Many Palm Beach County voters figured that if the No. 3 slot was a vote for Bush then a vote for Gore would naturally be in the No. 4 slot, which was actually Buchanan’s. The conservative commentator reaped 3,411 votes in the heavily Democratic county. Buchanan’s Palm Beach percentage was more than twice his statewide average. Double punching by confused voters added to the lost votes: In addition to 5,352 Gore-Buchanan ballots, there were 2,864 with holes punched for both Gore and Socialist David McReynolds, whose name also was across from Gore’s. Bush was less affected. About 1,700 voters punched for he and Buchanan.

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