WASHINGTON — Florida's Supreme Court has given judges in the state broad power to overturn an election if flawed ballots create "reasonable doubt" that the outcome truly reflects "the will of the voters."
The law is not clear, however, on how to remedy such a mistake, especially when a flawed ballot in one county might have changed a statewide result--let alone possibly determine the outcome of a national election for president of the United States.
"We are in uncharted territory," said University of Florida Law School Dean Jon Mills.
Yet Democratic lawyers in Florida were pointing Thursday to legal decisions that give them a basis for going to court to challenge the outcome there because of ballot confusion in Palm Beach County.
In an opinion issued in 1998, the Florida Supreme Court said that disputed elections can be voided even when there is no evidence of fraud or vote stealing. The justices stressed that election results should reflect the will of the voters.
"If a court finds substantial noncompliance with statutory election procedures and also makes a factual determination that reasonable doubt exists as to whether the certified election expressed the will of the voters, then [the judge should] void the contested election, even in the absence of fraud or intentional wrongdoing," the state Supreme Court said.
Election law experts in Florida and elsewhere said that they thought the campaign of Vice President Al Gore had a fairly strong claim of voting irregularities.
"I think you can make out a highly persuasive case" that the ballots used in Palm Beach County violated the law, said University of Miami law professor Terence J. Anderson. The ballot did not meet all the standards written in state law, and voters were confused, he said.
Since Tuesday evening, Democratic activists have complained that many voters in Palm Beach County may have mistakenly punched the hole designated for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan.
Complaints have focused on the unusual design of the county's ballot, which listed candidates' names side by side rather than top to bottom, as state law requires. On the left side of the so-called butterfly ballot, Gore's name was listed below that of Texas Gov. George W. Bush. But to the right and slightly above Gore's name was the box for Buchanan. In between the list of names were the punch holes.
