Hundreds of Votes Won't Count

Hundreds of votes in Palm Beach County won't count in the presidential election. The reason? Absentee ballots not filled out properly.

The vast majority of absentee ballots are fine. Of some 70,000 absentee ballots received as of Thursday, only about one in 100 has a problem. But that still means hundreds of votes will end up uncounted.

Palm Beach County's canvassing board, meeting Thursday at the vote tabulation center, inspected more than 410 absentee ballots, singled out by elections workers because of problems with signatures-- or lack of them. Board members looked at another 413 Wednesday.

So far the board has rejected 211 absentee ballots, 103 for having no signature at all. Another 108 have been tossed out because signatures did match those on record at the elections office. An additional 204 ballots will likely be rejected because people signed their names in the wrong location. State law requires the signature in a box below a voter affidavit. Canvassing board have approved counting 408 of the problematic ballots.

"We try very hard to make those matches based on letters and style," explained County Commissioner and canvassing board member Karen Marcus. "Some of the signatures are very very different. Some of them we just can't even connect. And so we have to reject them."

Canvassing Board chair Judge Barry Cohen joined Marcus expressing frustration at having to disqualify voters, especially those who failed to sign their ballot. "It's very sad to see people who took the time to vote absentee, and then their vote doesn't count because of the absence of a signature," said Judge Cohen.

Also on Thursday, tabulation of the absentee ballots got under way. Mid-afternoon elections workers started feeding the first ballots into rapid scanning machines at the tabulation center. The numbers will be stored in the machines, then actually counted, or added to totals in the different races, on election night.

These are the same machines used if a recounts is required. During the recent recount of a race for judge, there were inconsistencies in the way the machines counted the ballots.

Acting Supervisor of Elections Brad Merriman said since the recount, equipment maker Sequoia performed maintenance on the machines, and they were tested for accuracy. "They replaced some reed heads and some parts," said Merriman. While unable to explain what happened during the recount, Merriman says he has confidence in the equipment. "We know going into this next election cycle, they're all reading exactly the same way," Merriman maintained.

Ballots from early voting and election day polling locations are counted on different machines.