Thousands of absentee ballots miscounted in Palm Beach County

In a bizarre twist, the election that cost Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore her job became mired Wednesday in a major vote-counting problem when thousands of absentee ballots were counted twice. Palm Beach County voters cast 31,138 absentee ballots on Tuesday. But when the counting was done early Wednesday morning, the totals showed 37,839 absentee ballots -- an extra 6,701. With LePore skipping work the day after her narrow loss to Arthur Anderson, the discrepancy was disclosed during a Wednesday morning meeting of the elections Canvassing Board. The recount, which entailed resending the ballots through optical scanning machines, started at 11 a.m. and finished late Wednesday. Determining the exact number of absentee ballots proved challenging: early Wednesday the total was 31,095. By day's end it was 31,138. [more ]

• Democrats Kicked Out: the recount was carried out without members of the public present [more ]