There’s a report on the GD, They Threw out 19,000 Votes thread that the Rush Limbaugh radio show said that the 19,120 votes that were invalidated for double counting on the presidential election, were actually spoiled ballots, and voters got a second ballot in those cases.
I also heard an NBC commentator say this morning that the 19,000 votes were ‘in a dumpster.’ I believe he was using an unfortunate figure of speech, but can someone confirm that the ballots in question were not physically thrown away? Isn’t it the case that spoiled ballots are retained, but not placed in the ballot box?
I found it unbelievable that 4% of the voters in Palm Beach County would double punch on the presidential election, and blithely walk out of the polling place.
Also, if a voter double punches on one race and places the ballot in the box, does that invalidate the whole ballot or just the vote in that race?
The Rush Limbaugh report appears to be incorrect based on data from Palm Beach County election results at http://pbcelections.org/ElectionResults/2000/GEN/CUM_PRE.HTM#1
The number of ballots cast in the presidential election was 461,988, but the total votes for the 10 candidates on the ballot were 432,286. The difference must be the 19,120 double-punched ballots & the remainder are ballots where the voter didn’t vote on the presidential race.
Well, you appear to have answered your own question. Regarding the dumpster, I’m sure it was a figure of speech, as all states have statutes requiring that all ballots be saved and locked up for some amount of time.
Um that would be 29702 not 19120, how can you say the diffrence are those who didn’t vote for pres - looks like you are ASS-U-ming.
If the 19K votes are votes that were invalidated recast, there can be votes that were simply disregarded for double, triple, multi-punched cards.
I find it very suspect that the heavly democratic counties found up to 600 more votes for Algore during the recount - while most only had a discrepancy of 0-10 votes - can we say voter fraud - how ‘bout ballot stuffin’.
So the fatal error rate was 4% on the Palm Beach county ballots (19,120/461,988) I can see why people are po’d about this, that’s a 1 in 25 chance that their vote didn’t count, or if the error is restricted to the democrats about 1 in 12. That’s WAY beyond an acceptable margin of error; especially when the recounts in the rest of the state show a systematic errors in favor of Bush.