Email this article Printer friendly page

 For Immediate Release
Nov 29, 2000 Contact: Press Office
202-646-5172


BALLOTS “RECREATED” IN PALM BEACH

Palm Beach County Workers and Volunteers “Recreated” Ballots Damaged By Machine Counting Process

Other Problems Uncovered by Partial Audit of Disputed Ballots

Judicial Watch To Continue Ballot Inspections – Seeks To Intervene in Tallahassee Court Case

(Miami, FL) Judicial Watch discovered numerous problems in its examination of disputed ballots in Palm Beach County yesterday. Judicial Watch was granted access to the ballots under Florida law and pursuant to a court order. Johnson Lambert & Co., a public accounting firm with expertise both in counting ballots and in detecting fraud, is helping oversee the Judicial Watch effort.

Judicial Watch uncovered that Palm Beach County workers and volunteers recreated certain ballots which had been allegedly damaged during the machine count of the ballots. Other potential problem areas Judicial Watch found included the failure of Palm Beach officials to devise any standard for evaluating the disputed ballots, the failure of Palm Beach to reconcile vote totals throughout their various counts, chads taped onto ballots, ballots for a particular candidate mislabeled as ballots for another candidate, and the lack of certainty on the part of Palm Beach officials as to the number and location of the disputed ballots.

Some of the disputed ballots from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties are en route to Tallahassee, per court orders. Judicial Watch will attempt to intervene as a third party in the court matter in Tallahassee in order to continue its ballot inspections under Florida law and in the public interest. Judicial Watch will also offer to assist Judge Sauls in Tallahassee in his evaluations of the Palm Beach and Miami-Dade processes.

“Based on what we preliminarily found in Palm Beach, no one can trust the numbers generated during the manual counts by partisan officials. It may be up to an independent group such as Judicial Watch to provide the courts and the American people with an accurate, non-partisan picture of what occurred in Florida,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.

Top of Page