RTFA: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/3400-ball…

Palm Beach County, Florida, is in the news again for another election mishap. This time the culprit isnt the countys infamous butterfly ballot that made headlines in the 2000 presidential race. Instead, the problem is ballots used with the countys new 5.5 million optical-scan machines made by Sequoia Voting Systems.

More than 3,000 optical-scan ballots have mysteriously disappeared since the county held an election last Tuesday.

According to tallies a week ago, a total of 102,523 ballots were cast in the election. But according to a recount of one of the races, which was completed this last Sunday, the total number of cast ballots was only 99,045 — a difference of 3,478. Election officials say they cant explain the discrepancy, though critics are concerned that this is a precursor to problems that could arise in the November presidential election.

The problem was discovered only because the county was conducting a recount of a close judicial race between an incumbent, 15th Circuit Judge Richard Wennet, and his challenger William Abramson. Prior to the recount, Abramson had won the election by 17 votes; but the recount flipped the race and resulted in him losing the election to Wennet by 60 votes. The total number of votes cast in that specific race dropped by 2,900 between the time ballots were counted last Tuesday and the recount.

Palm Beach County Election Supervisor Arthur Anderson said the discrepancy in the number of votes cast in the judicial race was likely due to the extra sensitivity of optical-scan machines used in the recount, which are different from optical-scan machines that counted the ballots on Election Day. The seven high-speed tabulating machines used in the recount are much more “unforgiving” than those that processed the votes on election day, he told the Palm Beach Post.

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