Cynthia D. Waddell Sr. It would appear that you were looking at a dynamically created page. Specifically, a Cold Fusion created page. Since it is processed on the server, it outputs a blank line for every line of CF code. This can be turned off in CF administrator.
Any error messages displaying anything in pound signs is CF code.
So, while I don't doubt the source code is bad, a bunch of blank lines is not a stupid trick to hide source code as you have postulated. As for the errors, it sounds like they need a little help with their CF code. I forget how long. Furthermore, not only is the HTML a mess, but the backend is broken. I'm a mild case of requiring accessibility myself.