10 The “Butterfly Ballot”: Palm Beach County and 3,407 Buchanan Votes

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Introduction 1
4. Background
5. 1 Winning the Presidency: The Electoral Vote 15
6. Part I. Counting by Hand
7. 2 Manual Recounts: In Florida, and Across the Nation 29
8. 3 Protesting the Election: What Sort of Deadline Was November 14? 43
9. 4 Contesting the Election: What Does the Law Mean by “Rejection of Legal Votes”? 56
10. 5 Challenging Hand Counts in Federal Court: The Seed Is Planted 70
11. Part II. The Bush Attack on the Florida Supreme Court
12. 6 The “Safe-Harbor” Provision and Article II of the Constitution: Did the Florida Supreme Court Rewrite Florida Law? 85
13. 7 Article II of the U.S. Constitution: Did the Florida Supreme Court Improperly Rely on the Florida Constitution? 94
14. 8 The U.S. Supreme Court Asks for Clarification: The Florida Supreme Court Responds 100
15. Part III. The End of the Road
16. 9 The U.S. Supreme Court Ends the Election: The Unconstitutionality of Florida’s Hand Counts and the Ultimate Significance of December 12 111
17. Part IV. The Wild-Card Lawsuits
18. 10 The “Butterfly Ballot”: Palm Beach County and 3,407 Buchanan Votes 137
19. 11 Absentee Ballots: Seminole and Martin Counties and a Printer’s Error 151
20. Part V. The Legislative Role
21. 12 The Florida Legislature: What Was Its Proper Role? 163
22. 13 The U.S. Congress: The Unused Court of Last Resort 168
23. Afterword 178
24. Notes 185
25. Acknowledgments 197
26. Index 199
27. About the Author 202