Throwing out Palm Beach votes is unfair

As a recent graduate of IU and a resident of Palm Beach County, Fla., I thought I would clarify some information about the election and the opinion of Miss Anne Scuffham. \nFirst, what happened on Election Day here was a travesty. Palm Beach County decided to use what we now all know is called a butterfly ballot to make it easier for the elderly to read the ballot (in Florida, two pages were needed for president because so many candidates were listed). The problems with this were numerous. \nFirst of all, the ballot was illegal. This can be proved by simply looking up the Florida law on the Sunshine Page for the state legislature. Second, the holes did not line up correctly with machine. If someone needed help, sometimes they received it, sometimes not (Florida law only allows 5 minutes to vote). So from this, we have 19,000 mistakes. \nMiss Scuffham cites in the rebuttal that, in 1996, 14,872 votes were disqualified, but this is misleading because that figure involves both double voting and no voting. The 19,000 involves only double voting. Only a small number of votes in 1996 were thrown out for under voting. Whatever side you take, get the facts right before you speak, and do not just base your opinions on "a Republican press release"