In the absence of law, county canvassing boards have fashioned their own varying standards. Greenberg cited a 1975 Florida Supreme court case that offers some guidance to canvassing boards on the issue of voter intent. In Boardman v. Esteva, a case involving absentee ballots in Leon County, the court warned against disenfranchising voters on technical grounds. Palm Beach County responded by counting dimpled ballots if the voter showed a clear trend of failing to punch clean through the vote card. A dimpled presidential vote on an otherwise fully punched ballot means no vote.
Republicans say the dimple dispute bares the flaws of manual vote-counting.
Miller said the board needed to reexamine ballots that met a less strict standard, though he stopped short of dictating what that would be. The board decided to set aside the disputed ballots for review when all 609 precincts were completed. Broward Circuit Judge Robert Lee, who chaired the canvassing board until Tuesday, had hoped for direction from the Supreme Court. It was unclear Tuesday night how Broward would handle the dimpled ballots. Herald staff writers Shari Rudavsky and Mark Silva contributed to this report.