They are the under votes, or non-votes, and there wasn't anything unusual about their numbers in this election. What was unusual was allowing canvassing board members to hold these non-votes up to the light, make a speculative judgment, and then place them in the Gore pile to be counted. And while life is not fair, we thankfully have the equal protection clause of the Constitution to see that fairness at least has a guideline. The U.S. Supreme Court 7-2 decision did in fact call the hand recount unworkable and unconstitutional, independent of the remaining time frame. What concerned us at the onslaught of the post election fracas by Mr. Gore was that we saw the legal maneuvering as just another example of how the Clinton-Gore administration thinks they are above the law.
Additional examples are too numerous to list here.
In Florida, Mr. Bush won 50 of the 67 counties, in many cases by a wide margin.