USA Today reported today that a recount of the Florida vote conducted by USA Today, the Miami Herald and Knight Ridder Newspapers shows that Bush would have led by three out of four standards, including the one that the Al Gore campaign wanted to use.
By the first and least demanding standard–counting almost any mark on a ballot as a vote–Bush won by 1,665 votes. Using the Palm Beach standard–dimples count if ballot shows other dimples, as do dangling chads, hand marks and pinprics–Bush won by 884 votes. The two-corner standard (at least two corners off chad; no pinpricks or dimples counted) has bush leading by 363 votes. Only the strict standard–the chad must be fully removed–shows Gore leading, and then by just three votes.
BDO Seidman, the accounting firm hired by the media groups, counted votes in all 67 Florida counties.
The accounting firm will now examine the 110,000 ‘overvote’ ballots where more than one vote was recorded.
Democratic leaders maintain that, if these votes are counted, Gore will be found to have won easily.
Former Montana governor Marc Racicot, a Bush adviser and spokesman during the recount phase said, “The election is over. The people have accepted the result and they’re now focused on things more important to them like the economy and education.
Former Gore campaign aide Douglas Hattaway commented, “The takeaway lesson from all this is that Florida’s election system failed.”
Opinion: They’re both right.
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