Palm Beach County - Part 2

We should ask, did Florida have a significant amount of disqualified ballots?  The answer is no.  The number of disqualified ballots is consistent with national results and previous results in Florida.  Every state had at least 2% of their ballots disqualified.  Some states had as much as 3%.  Florida fell within that range.

What about the counties where Gore sought manual recounts?  Did they have unusual amounts of disqualified ballots?  They did in fact have high numbers of spoiled ballots, reflecting the sheer number of voters who participated.  But they did not have the highest percentages of spoiled ballots.  It turns out that Bush counties had the highest percentage of disqualified ballots.

There were sixteen counties with higher percentages of disqualified ballots than Palm Beach.  Many counties had as much as 7, 8, or 9 percent of their ballots disqualified.  The charts below show the counties who had higher percentages of disqualified ballots than Palm Beach County.  The first chart has counties won by George Bush.  The second chart has counties won by Gore.

(This data comes from the Florida Sentinel Newspaper, 11/14/00.  CNN election archives also support it.)