However, Willie Meggs, an assistant state attorney in Tallahassee whose jurisdiction includes Gadsden, said on Friday that he took affidavits from two witnesses who complained that the recount gave votes to Gore even when the voter indicated the vice president's name by penciling in only an asterisk or arrow, or when voters selected two or more presidential candidates but shaded in the space next to Gore's name darker. Gadsden voters were instructed to use a pencil to blacken an oval next to the candidate's name. The ballots were then fed into the county's lone optical scanner, which spat out as rejects those not marked correctly. Ballots were confusing But many voters in Gadsden were confused by the number of presidential candidates and by instructions on the ballot. She said Hutchinson, who is white, also made it difficult for elderly people living in rural areas to get absentee ballots.
People get confused.
It's all those extra presidential candidates we had this year. People didn't know what to do.