289 blank ballots found in Palm Beach County's electronic voting machines

By Kathy Bushouse
Staff Writer
Posted March 17 2004

At least 289 Palm Beach County residents cast blank votes in the March 9 Democratic presidential primary election even though it was the only race on their ballots.

Overall, fewer than 1 percent of voters who were choosing among presidential candidates submitted blank ballots, according to a South Florida Sun-Sentinel computer-assisted analysis of voting results. The phenomenon, known as undervoting, has happened for decades but now gets extra scrutiny after South Florida's election problems in 2000 and 2002.

Some potential bright spots: The percentage of those who could vote only on the presidential contest and ultimately cast blank ballots was half what elections officials typically expect. Elections supervisors typically expect an undervote of about 1 percent. And last week's blank-ballot rate was one-quarter of the 2 percent undervoting among presidential-only voters in 2000, the analysis found.

Broward County voters last week cast blank ballots twice as often as Palm Beach County residents.

Still, it's a problem some elections officials say could worsen in November, when legions of voters lacking experience with the touch-screen voting technology go to use it for the first time.

Voting experts and elections experts say there are myriad reasons for undervoting. They include voters getting confused by or frustrated with the election equipment but not asking for help, a dislike of all the candidates that leads to a conscious choice to not cast a ballot, or a desire to show that they voted but decided not to pick a preferred candidate.

"It happens no matter what system you have," said county Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore.

LePore said she has received blank absentee ballots from voters who took the time to get witness signatures but didn't pick candidates. In other cases, people just want to show they've voted without actually picking a candidate, LePore said.

Kay Clem, elections supervisor in Indian River County and president of the state elections supervisors association, said she has watched voters go to a voting booth and emerge without picking a candidate for whatever reason.

"It sounds so weird. Some people think, `Well, there is no way. That's just an excuse,'" Clem said. "But it happens. I've seen it happen."

Finding an explanation for undervoting is tough because it's difficult to track who is casting the ballots without voting in all the races, said Matt Streb, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

"People just feel a strong sense of civic duty," Streb said. "They're not really sure what they're voting for but they know it's election day."

He admits that what's happened in South Florida during recent elections where voters cast blank ballots in elections where there is only one race is puzzling.

"It does seem very strange, when you have one election on the ballot," he said.

The county spent $14 million on electronic voting machines after the disputed 2000 presidential vote. The new Sequoia Voting Systems machines are designed only to block voters from choosing two candidates in a race.

While the March 9 undervoting won't make a difference in who is chosen as the Democratic presidential nominee, it could be an issue in November.

Most voters who came to the polls last week are regular voters, said Norman Ostrau, a former state representative and former deputy county attorney who was on the Broward County canvassing board in 2000. In November, many voters will be using the touch-screen voting machines for the first time, Ostrau said.

"You're going to have 20 or 30, and maybe 40 percent of the people have never touched these things," said Ostrau, who is now in private practice.

One possible solution, he said, is to give voters the option of picking no one.

It wouldn't be a "none of the above" ion, he said, but an option that lets voters confirm they're not casting a ballot in a particular race. It's an option already suggested by elections supervisors like LePore, who said the idea got a cool reception from state legislators.

It would take a legislative action to change the law to add that option, and most are reluctant to mess with the formula that got them to office in the first place, Ostrau said.

"Every time you bring an issue to the Legislature, either for campaign finance or changing election law, you always have a fight because everybody got elected under the old law," he said.

Another way to prevent undervoting, Streb said, is to put more into voter education and poll worker training.

"We're not necessarily willing to spend more money to do those things," he said. "I think that we oftentimes don't take elections as seriously as we need to."

Such training is critical, said Lloyd Leonard, advocacy director for the League of Women Voters of the United States.

"It's very clear that nonvoters are intimidated by the process," he said. "They're scared to go into something that they haven't done before and look stupid."

Scott Maddox, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, said the party plans to reach out to its voters to make sure they are as comfortable as possible with the new voting systems before going to the polls.

"It's new technology," Maddox said. "A lot of people are not used to dealing with machines of any sort."

Frank Behrman, a retired trial lawyer who lives west of Delray Beach, said he thinks the undervote is being overemphasized. People get confused, Behrman said, but it also can be a case of people not voting for unfamiliar candidates.

"I know I wouldn't vote a complete ticket if I didn't know one of the parties running," said Behrman, 91.

He didn't have problems with the machines the last time he voted, but said some of his fellow voters do have trouble. But he doesn't fault the machines.

"When it's new, they fear it," he said. "They're accustomed to the old tradition and do things the way they've always done it."