Since this has taken a turn from the 2nd graders are smart enough to do it post, I want to repost my findings
Palm Beach County had 65,062 more voters in 2000 than 1996, an increase of 16.39%
One would expect the Republican and Democratic division to break somewhat consistently with the 1996 vote.
However, Democrats and Libertarians increased by 18.11% or a total of 42,084 votes
Republicans and Reform Party voters decreased in count by 8,248 votes or -5.01%.
There may well be a voter fraud in Palm Beach County…
Though not as the Democrats would like to paint it.
Doesn’t the fact that almost everyone immediately spots the problem (2nd on the card, 3rd hole to punch) indicate that there actually is a problem with the design?
If 16,000 people fucked up the first time, and 19,000 this time, it doesn’t matter how obvious it is to most people: if 4% of the electorate spoils their ballots unintentionally, it’s a bad design.
For that matter, why was the design used again after the first time a bunch of votes were disqualified because of it?
I saw on the Mcneil Leher news hour that in some counties (without the ballot problem,) up to 15% of the vote was disqualified. The problem is incompetance.
a big black arrow pointing to the hole to punch ought to be considered as some kind of clue that the third hole is the one for Gore, rather than just dingbat decorations on the ballot.