Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 07/30/04)

Palm Beach County, Florida. November, 2000. Punch card. Palm Beach Post blames butterfly ballot for Gore's loss. A study of the ballots in Palm Beach County led the Palm Beach Post to conclude that the butterfly ballot caused Al Gore to lose the presidency.
	The newspaper's review of discarded ballots found Gore lost 6,607 votes when voters marked more than one name on the county's "butterfly ballot." Voters who marked Gore's name and that of another candidate totaled more than 10 times the winning margin Bush received to claim Florida's 25 electoral votes and the White House, the Post concluded. The newspaper said the result was "an indictment of the butterfly ballot, political experts and partisan observers agree."

* Newspaper: Butterfly ballot cost Gore White House. Inside Politics. March 11, 2001.

Every teeny-tiny thing that happens
gets blown tremendously out of proportion.
~ Theresa LaPore
Palm Beach County Election Supervisor
Designer of the "butterfly ballot"