Supervisor Pat Hollarn contends that giving voters a chance to redo an erroneous ballot would slow down voting too much. Look, if the directions say fill in the oval, then you fill in the oval. If you screw it up, you screw it up. Some critics contend that more than economics has influenced county decisions on what kind of equipment and services to offer voters. In Duval County, where so many problems occurred, elections officials distributed inaccurate sample ballots just before Election Day.
Critics say the conflicting directions led many voters to pick two presidential candidates.
The county lacks the voter-alert system. When the canvassing board did a manual recount, officials found many voters had marked all 10 candidates and then scrawled Gore's name in the box for write-ins. Some majority-white precincts also experienced problems. The county has optical scanners but not the error-alert system. County Commissioner Bo Pelham, whose district includes the precinct, said that although 96 presidential ballots were invalidated for overvotes, there were far fewer or no overvotes in his race and several others.