From: Steve Wingate 
Subject: SNET: Dimples point to possible Gore win, newspaper says
Date: 11 Mar 2001 16:45:44 -0500
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Dimples point to possible Gore win, newspaper says  

The Associated Press  

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (March 10, 2001 5:17 p.m. EST 
http://www.nandotimes.com) - Al Gore might have won the presidency if 
Palm Beach County officials had tallied every dimpled punch card ballot 
cast in the November election, The Palm Beach Post has concluded.  

The newspaper reported Saturday that Gore would have had a net gain of 
784 votes over President Bush if the county's three-member canvassing 
board had counted every ballot that had a hanging chad, pinhole, ding or 
dimple.  

That would have been enough to erase Bush's 537-vote margin in Florida, 
which won him the state's 25 electoral votes and the White House. Gore 
had gained 174 votes in Palm Beach County's official 10-day manual 
recount, but those were not counted in the statewide tally because the 
county canvassing board missed the deadline by about two hours.  

"It sounds like more science fiction to me," said Montana Gov. Marc 
Racicot, who spoke for the Republicans about the Post's examination. "It 
doesn't matter how many times there's a recount, there seems to be a 
disparity in the analysis. The basis upon which you draw a conclusion is 
subject to incredible impeachment."  

Gore lawyer Dennis Newman said the newspaper's examination showed 
why the Democrats wanted every discernible mark counted as a vote.  

"We thought all along that those dents didn't get there on their own," 
Newman said. "We knew that Bush would pick up votes also. We just 
thought that we would pick up more."  

Palm Beach County voters cast their ballot by placing a card in a machine 
and using a pin or stylus to punch out perforated squares.  

Some voters said the ballot was confusing and that they accidentally voted 
for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan rather than Gore. Others said the 
machines were defective and they were unable to cleanly punch their 
ballots.  

The Post examined the 9,150 ballots that county officials said had no vote 
for president - commonly called "undervotes" - and found that 5,736 had a 
mark for either Bush or Gore. There were 462,350 ballots cast in the 
county, which Gore carried by an almost two-to-one margin.  

The newspaper found that Bush would have had a net gain of 14 votes if 
the canvassing board had counted the 62 undervotes that had a hanging 
chad. That's where a candidate's square is partially detached or is hanging 
from the ballot.  

But it found that Gore would have had a net gain of 25 votes if the 
canvassing board had then also counted the 313 ballots where chads were 
not detached but where light could be seen through the perforations of a 
candidate's square or through a pinhole in the square. This still would not 
have been enough to overcome Bush.  

Gore's victory would have come if the board had also counted the 5,361 
ballots that had a dimpled chad, which means the chad had an indentation 
but no light could be seen.  

Canvassing board Chairman Charles Burton pointed out that if dimpled 
chads were counted, the board would have had to reject ballots where 
voters made a clear punch for one candidate and made a dimple for 
another because that would have meant they voted for two candidates. It is 
unknown how many ballots that method would have disqualified.  

Two groups are examining ballots in all 67 Florida counties.  

The first group - The Miami Herald, its parent company Knight Ridder, and 
USA Today - had completed examining 65 counties as of Wednesday.  

Last month, the Herald said a review of 10,644 uncounted ballots in Miami-
Dade County showed Gore would not have gained enough votes to 
overtake Bush when combined with results from Broward, Palm Beach and 
Volusia counties. Gore would have gained no more than 49 votes in Miami-
Dade, the Herald said.  

The other group consists of The Associated Press, The New York Times, 
The Washington Post, CNN, The Palm Beach Post, St. Petersburg Times, 
The Wall Street Journal and Tribune Publishing, which owns the Orlando 
Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. As of Tuesday, it still had 20 
counties remaining.  


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