(CBS4) WEST PALM BEACH It wasn’t hanging chads but technical difficulties which produced inaccurate vote tallies for Palm Beach County local elections, leaving many candidates wondering who won well into evening before the results were corrected.

The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Web site displayed inaccurate numbers throughout the night, showing some candidates leading when they were actually behind and differences in vote totals in the same precincts.

Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson first blamed Tuesday's glitch on a "technicality that staff has encountered," but later said it was caused by an "unreadable" vote cartridge.

"The staff had to manually put those votes in," said Anderson, adding that he didn't know from which municipality the affected cartridge originated.

Palm Beach County was at the center of a 2000 presidential election debacle after dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads on punch card ballots held up a final count. Florida was eventually decided by 537 votes after the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in, handing the election to George W. Bush. The state has since banned the punch cards and moved to all electronic voting machines.

At 10 p.m., the elections Web site showed that all 64 precincts for the West Palm Beach mayor's race had reported, but that just over 1,200 votes were cast.

Mayor Lois Frankel and challenger Al Zucaro both celebrated victories briefly, until Frankel eventually won re-election with 58 percent of the vote.

"I was just told I won," Zucaro said, celebrating in a downtown West Palm Beach bar, before realizing he had in fact lost.

Glitches were also seen in other races throughout the county.

Rita Ellis, who won Tuesday's mayoral race in Delray Beach, said the initial numbers from the elections office "just about gave me a heart attack."

At about 10 p.m., the numbers showed Ellis and challenger Virginia Snyder practically tied with all 45 precincts reporting. By the end of the night, the numbers showed Ellis won the race by nearly a 3-1 margin.