# Could Florida 2000 happen again in 2008? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-florida-2000-happen-again-in-2008/470729 "2008-11-02T15:54:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-florida-2000-happen-again-in-2008/470729/1 "2008-11-02T15:54:15Z")
Has anything been done, in Florida and elsewhere, to ensure that the 2000 election debacle cannot happen again? Can we be confident that the results from Tuesday are a true reflection of the voters’ intentions? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-florida-2000-happen-again-in-2008/470729/2 "2008-11-02T16:15:20Z")
The “butterfly” design of the ballot seemed to be causing most of the problem, does Florida still have it? ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-florida-2000-happen-again-in-2008/470729/3 "2008-11-02T16:24:32Z")
Some places seem to still be using those voting machines which apparently an 8 year old can hack to change your vote. Don’t even talk about it! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-florida-2000-happen-again-in-2008/470729/4 "2008-11-02T16:41:01Z")
Apart from the ballot design, the real reason for the problems in FL was that the results were simply too close for a statistically valid call, and the whole election was close enough for the disposition of that one state to swing the election. When it’s essentially a dead heat, people are going to go out of their way looking for irregularities which could possibly change the count enough to throw the election the other way. That’s unlikely to happen in FL again, but it could happen somewhere else, with God knows what turning up as the irregularity. Even in that case, if the electoral vote isn’t close, it won’t make a difference to the presidential election. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-florida-2000-happen-again-in-2008/470729/5 "2008-11-02T17:53:25Z")
While chad and butterflies got all the attention from the media in 2000, the real problem was with the touch-screen machines. Nothing could be be done about checking fishy results from them. Ergo, the huge push to add more of this easily cheatable and un-recountable monsters. So, _more_ likely a problem this year than in 2000. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-florida-2000-happen-again-in-2008/470729/6 "2008-11-02T18:08:29Z")
I disagree that the ballot or voting machines were the problem in Florida. The problem is that elections are a measurement process and like all measurement processes there is some amount of error. The problem in Florida was that the error straddled the decision point. If either candidate had received say .05% more votes there would not have been the big issues we saw. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-florida-2000-happen-again-in-2008/470729/7 "2008-11-02T23:09:46Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > While chad and butterflies got all the attention from the media in 2000, the real problem was with the touch-screen machines. Nothing could be be done about checking fishy results from them. Ergo, the huge push to add more of this easily cheatable and un-recountable monsters. > > So, _more_ likely a problem this year than in 2000. I agree with this statement. Atleast with an absentee ballot it leaves a paper trail. ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-florida-2000-happen-again-in-2008/470729/8 "2008-11-02T23:14:37Z")
I figured we’d be talking about _this_ issue: > [@](#): > > …of the 179,855 ballots invalidated by Florida officials, 53 percent were cast by black voters. > **[Client Challenge](https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fchronicle%2Farchive%2F2004%2F06%2F20%2FING2976LG61.DTL)** ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-florida-2000-happen-again-in-2008/470729/9 "2008-11-03T01:17:15Z")
We’ve had all sorts of problems since, including the story linked to above by **KGL**. Little (well, nothing, actually) has been done to rectify the situation. No matter; SCOTUS will sort it all out for us.