President
Judicial
Watch
501
School Street N.W.
Washington,
D.C. 20026
We have performed the procedures enumerated below,
which were agreed to by Judicial Watch, solely to assist you with respect to
your review of Presidential ballot counting procedures in specific precincts in
the State of Florida. This engagement to apply agreed-upon procedures was
performed in accordance with standards established by the American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants. The sufficiency of the procedures is solely the
responsibility of Judicial Watch. Consequently, we make no representation
regarding the sufficiency of the procedures described below either for the
purpose for which this report has been requested or for any other purpose.
The following report is an interim one on the
procedures, which were performed in Broward County. It is not a final report,
as we have not completed the review.
Summary of Findings
We reviewed a total of 872 Broward County ballots selected by the election officials from among an approximate 6,500 under/over ballots and questioned ballots. It is important to note that these statistics may not remain consistent as we continue to review the remaining approximate 5,628 questioned ballots.
Of these 872 ballots, 370 were finally determined by the Board to be legal votes- 109 (29.4%) were for Bush, 261(70.6%) were for Gore.
The county election officials refused to give us any written criteria that they used in their adjudication process. They merely said that they attempted to determine the voters’ intentions from the evidence available on the ballots, which included various states of disturbance to the chad in the appropriate presidential position. These included everything from clearly punched through chad to slight depressions or disturbances to the chad called dimples.
We received no guidance from the Board to help in the determination of what constituted a legal vote when the presidential chad were dimpled or pregnant. In fact, in our review so far of the 872 ballots, we could detect no consistent pattern or qualitative difference in dimples between those which had been finally determined as evidence of a vote and those which had not. Even the determination of the existence of a dimple as opposed to an imperfection in the printing of the paper ballot is a subjective exercise. We have no doubt that our estimate of the number of dimples on the cards we reviewed may very well differ from the number determined by the other organizations reviewing the ballots.
574 (65.8%) of the 872 questioned ballots in this sample had dimples (simple dimple or pregnant) to either the Bush or Gore chad. 357 of these resulted in a legal vote being determined - 251 (70.3%) for Gore and 106 (29.7%) for Bush. This compares to 68.5% and 31.2% in the official total certified results for Broward County. The remainder were judged to be under or over votes by the canvassing board.
Procedures
We conducted our observation of the Broward County ballots at the Supervisor of Elections storage warehouse in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. on December 18th and 19th. The Election’s Board had prepared two tables for Judicial Watch and the other organizations participating in the observation; two election officials sat in front of the table and demonstrated the ballots. The population of ballots being reviewed was the approximate 6,500 under/over vote ballots and questioned. Each reviewed ballot had been sequentially numbered by reference to the precinct it came from. They were stored in number 10 envelopes by precinct along with other similarly judged ballots from that precinct. The elections official physically removed the ballots from the envelopes and displayed them to the observers, front and back and from whatever angle requested by any of the observers. At no time did we physically touch or handle the ballots.
Our primary task was to record the condition of the presidential (Bush & Gore) chad. Each chad is categorized as:
Clearly punched chad
Dimpled chad
Partially detached chads:
Pregnant
chad
Hanging
chad
Swinging
chad
Tri-chad.
In addition, we recorded whether there were other positions with dimpled chads, pregnant chads or partially detached chads. In the event that the ballot was ultimately counted as a Bush or Gore vote, that disposition was recorded.
The
categorization of a chad as dimpled or pregnant is subjective; all other
classifications for chad are objective.
The vast majority of recorded dimples are faint dimples. Most are depressions of the chad perceptible
only from inspection of the back of a ballot. Any punching of a chad by a
stylus leaves a pointed impression on the chad. In many cases, the depression
was different in that the depression was uniform across the chad and was
frequently associated with a faint black marking on the back of the chad; this
marking ran the full longer dimension of the chad. Some envelopes had
consistent runs of such non-pointed dimples.
A
chad is categorized as pregnant if its edges are separated from the card but
the corners are still attached or if there is a perforation of the chad but the
corners are still attached. In
addition, for a chad to be pregnant light must be visible through some break
inside or on the edge of the chad.
Ballots are presented as:
Undervotes
Overvotes
Bush votes
Gore votes.
Ballots Reviewed
We reviewed 872 ballots from 100 precincts in Broward County. This represents approximately 13 percent of the total number of questioned ballots. The following are details of the ballots reviewed:
Table 1 Total Number of Ballots Observed To Date:
|
Bush votes |
109 |
|
Gore votes |
261 |
|
Other votes |
9 |
|
Over-votes |
5 |
|
Under-votes |
488 |
|
Total observed |
872 |
Table 2 Condition of The Bush Chad and the Ballots’ Final Determination:
|
Canvassing Board’s Final Determination |
|||||||||||
|
Condition of the Bush Chad |
Bush Vote # % |
Gore Vote # % |
Other Vote # % |
Over Vote # % |
Under Vote # % |
Total # % |
||||||
|
No Marks |
1 |
0.9 |
260 |
99.6 |
9 |
100 |
2 |
40 |
443 |
90.8 |
715 |
82.0 |
|
Clearly Punched |
2 |
1.8 |
|
|
|
|
3 |
60 |
|
|
5 |
0.6 |
|
Dimpled |
70 |
64.2 |
1 |
0.4 |
|
|
|
|
43 |
8.8 |
114 |
13.1 |
|
Pregnant |
36 |
33.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
0.4 |
38 |
4.4 |
|
Total |
109 |
100 |
261 |
100 |
9 |
100 |
5 |
100 |
488 |
100 |
872 |
100 |
Table 3 Condition of The Gore Chad and the Ballots’ Final Determination
|
Canvassing Board’s Final Determination |
|||||||||||
|
Condition of the Gore Chad |
Bush Vote # % |
Gore Vote # % |
Other Vote # % |
Over Vote # % |
Under Vote # % |
Total # % |
||||||
|
No Marks |
107 |
98.2 |
5 |
1.9 |
9 |
100 |
1 |
20.0 |
307 |
62.9 |
429 |
49.2 |
|
Clearly Punched |
|
|
2 |
0.8 |
|
|
4 |
80.0 |
1 |
0.2 |
7 |
0.8 |
|
Dimpled |
2 |
1.8 |
217 |
83.1 |
|
|
|
|
175 |
35.9 |
394 |
45.2 |
|
Hanging |
|
|
3 |
1.1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
0.3 |
|
Pregnant |
|
|
33 |
12.6 |
|
|
|
|
5 |
1.0 |
38 |
4.4 |
|
Swinging |
|
|
1 |
0.4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
0.1 |
|
Total |
109 |
100 |
261 |
100 |
9 |
100 |
5 |
100 |
488 |
100 |
872 |
100 |
Table 4 Condition of the Bush and Gore Chad on the Same Ballot
|
Condition of the Gore Chad |
|||||
|
Condition Of The Bush Chad |
No Marks |
Clearly Punched |
Dimpled |
Hanging |
Pregnant |
Total |
|
No Marks |
286 |
4 |
383 |
3 |
39 |
715 |
|
Clearly Punched |
2 |
3 |
|
|
|
5 |
|
Dimpled |
105 |
|
9 |
|
|
114 |
|
Pregnant |
36 |
|
2 |
|
|
38 |
|
Total |
429 |
7 |
394 |
3 |
39 |
872 |
We were not engaged to, and did not, perform an audit, the objective of which would be the expression of an opinion on the specified elements, accounts, or items. Accordingly, we do not express such an opinion. Had we performed additional procedures, other matters might have come to our attention that would have been reported to you.
This report is intended solely for the use of the specified users listed above and should not be used by those who have not agreed to the procedures and taken responsibility for the sufficiency of the procedures for their purposes.