Hidden Message of Miami Herald Recount: Republican Harassment Worked

Wednesday's headline was "Review shows ballots say Bush." Thursday's read "Recounts could have given Gore the edge." Yet hidden behind the Miami Herald's simplistic effort to appear neutral was another darker message. The recount revealed the effectiveness of Republican complaints that canvassing boards in Broward and Palm Beach counties were using a lax standard in judging what constituted a vote. The boards in fact rejected hundreds of ballots that could have been awarded to Democrat Al Gore.

The Herald found that marks on rejected ballots were in many cases no different from marks on ballots that had been credited to the candidates. Had, for example, the standard advocated by U.S. Representative Peter Deutsch, of Pembroke Pines, FL been used, Gore's margin in Broward county would have been 1,475 - an increase of 567. In Palm Beach county the increase would have been 174, for a 1,081 margin.

Florida law requires that no ballot be discarded if the intent of the voter is clear. A provision adopted in the 1970's directs canvassing boards to examine any "damaged or defective" ballot that cannot be tabulated by machine. The law was further refined by a 1998, Florida Supreme Court decision that that "defective" includes a ballot "marked in a manner such that it cannot be read by a scanner." In the flurry of legal and administrative activity following the 2000 election in Florida, lawyers for the Gore campaign invoked this portion of the statute only before the Miami-Dade canvassing board, arguing that undervoted ballots were "defective" under state law, and had to be tabulated by hand. They inexplicably did not refer to the statute in arguments before the Florida Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court, despite an opening when Justice Antonin Scalia asked about the legality of ballots that could not be read by machine. The Herald reports that despite state law to the contrary, canvassing boards in Florida almost never examine ballots that fail to register a vote for a candidate on election night.

If both counties had use a less restrictive standard of what constituted a vote, and completed the recount by the deadlines established by the Florida Supreme Court, Gore could have gained more than 2,000 votes at a time when Bush's state-wide margin was 930. The 2,000+ margin that would have resulted from a more lenient standard may in fact be a low estimate. That number does not include cleanly punched ballots in Broward county, which might have represented another 500-vote increase for Gore. Election officials said there was a possibility these ballots had already been machine counted.

Republican spokesmen expressed surprise at the finding. "It was our contention all along that the canvassing board was being extremely loose in their standards," Broward Republican Party Chairman George LeMieux told the Herald. Representative Deutsch, who was present through much of the Broward County recount, had argued consistently that every ballot mark was deliberate. Deutsch asserted, "The reality is that the canvassing board did not use a liberal standard and did not use the correct standard. Had they used the correct standard, Al Gore would be president."

Republicans fiercely resisted attempts to adopt a lenient standard, and were apparently successful. The Herald reported that volumes of ballots were not even submitted to the canvassing boards, because election workers and observers from the political parties agreed that the votes were not valid.

Democratic Party observers had received unambiguous instructions to forward to the canvassing board any ballots that had a mark near Gore's name. But according to Kartik Krishnaiyer, assistant to the chairman of the Palm Beach Democratic Party, as time wore on observers were less likely to challenge rejected ballots. Also, Republican pressure had an effect. Kartik admitted to the Herald that he knowingly failed to pass along ballots in an attempt to minimize Republican accusations that Democrats were trying to manufacture votes for Gore. On occasion he made a judgment not to fight for ballots that he believed demonstrated voter intent, if forwarding to the canvass board would have required a "hard sell."

Ironically the Herald also found that if the most restrictive standard, advocated by Republicans, had been applied, Gore would still have won, albeit by a margin of only three votes. Such a small margin would have underscored the questionable nature of the entire Florida vote, and would likely have triggered further recounts and investigations.

References:

Rudavsky, Shari and Beth Reinhard. "Recounts could have given Gore the edge." Miami Herald. 5 Apr. 2001

Merzer, Martin. "Review shows ballots say Bush" Miami Herald 4 Apr.

Weaver, Jay. "Law: check 'defective' ballots." Miami Herald. 4 Apr. 2001.