Report: Rates of discarded ballots this year from 2000

Associated Press   22 November 2004

 

MIAMI - The number of ballots rejected in this year's election ped dramatically in the state plagued by hanging and dimpled chads four years ago, a result officials attributed to newer voting technology, a newspaper analysis found.

In a dozen counties, those that used optical-scan ballots had discard rates of about a quarter percent, compared to a half percent in those that used ATM-style touch-screen machines, The Miami Herald reported in Monday's editions. Rates reached 12 percent in one county in 2000.

In Miami-Dade County, 28,000 mostly punchcard ballots were uncounted in 2000 because no choice could be detected or more than one candidate was marked in a race. With touch-screens, that ped to 4,227. Most were paper absentee ballots with more than one choice, an overvote.

Broward County, which also replaced punchcards with touch-screens, reduced discarded ballots from 14,600 in 2000 to 2,852.

The two counties had nearly 1.49 million people vote in the general election this year. They were also at the heart of the disputed 2000 presidential election, which was delayed by disputes over policies that defined undervotes and overvotes.

Touch-screen machines do not allow for overvotes and limit undervotes by alerting voters when they don't make a choice in a race. The new systems have virtually eliminated the questions about voter intent that arose with hanging or "pregnant" chads or improperly filled-in ovals on optical-scan ballots, elections officials said.

In poor, rural Gadsden County in north Florida, more than 2,000 optical-scan ballots, or 12 percent of votes cast, were discarded as overvotes, or undervotes, when no choice can be detected. This year, only 110 ballots were thrown out.

This year, the county equipped its precincts with tabulators that voters feed their ballots into. If the machine finds a problem with the ballot, it is returned to the voter for correction. Voters didn't have that chance in 2000.

"I was shocked at how much better it was than what we saw four years ago," said Kurt Browning, elections supervisor in Pasco County, which switched from punchcards to touch-screens.

Fifteen counties - representing about half of Florida's population - now have touch-screens. The other 52 counties are now equipped with optical-scan machines at every precinct.