Of the 246 ballots tossed in the county, 119, the largest single amount, were postmarked after Election Day, the three-member canvassing board said. Others were disqualified because they lacked the signature of a witness, were mailed by a voter whose ballot already had been cast or were mailed by unregistered voters.
Some also were rejected because they had no witness address, carried no postmark or did not come from overseas.
Easier counting rule adopted
Board members also voted unanimously Sunday to change the standard used during an ongoing manual recount of votes to include "dimpled" and "one-corner" ballots.
The board, however, decided to continue segregating those ballots as the count goes on.
By separating the ballots, the county can readily calculate the tally should the Florida Supreme Court intervene and force it to return to the "two-corner" standard.
Chad defined
Composed of two Democrats and a Republican, the board changed its counting standard after County Attorney Andrew Meyers advised it the "two-corner" rule that counters had been using would not hold up in court if challenged.
Under the two-corner standard, two corners of a chad, which is a tiny piece of paper punched from a ballot when a vote is cast, must be punched for the vote to count.
A dimpled ballot bears the imprint of the tool used to cast a vote, but no corners have been torn from the paper.
Meyers planned Monday to argue the merits of the new standard in front of the Florida Supreme Court on behalf of the canvassing board.
County Supervisor Jane Carroll also is asking the court to rule on a standard for determining voter intent.
Republicans upset
Broward Republican Party chairman Ed Pozzuoli said he was upset with the board's decision but hoped the high court would rule that the "two-corner" standard applied.
"The numbers are not there for Vice President Gore, so now they're finding ways to change their standard," said Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan. "This is like changing the rules in the third quarter of a football game. It is outrageous."
Rep. Peter Deutsch, a Florida Democrat, however, said, "This is not about Al Gore; this is not about George Bush; this is about a fair and accurate vote."
Once Broward officials finish their manual recount of 588,000 ballots from all 609 precincts, they will examine the "dimpled" and "one-corner" ballots to try to determine the voters' intent.
Seventy teams of workers began the fifth day of recounting Sunday morning. Each counting team consists of four people: two ballot counters and a representative of each of the two major political parties.
County authorities have predicted they will complete the recount Monday.
Asked Sunday if that goal would be met, Broward County Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger said, "I hope," as she dashed back into the canvassing board room.
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