Hello, all. For those outside the area, and for what it's worth, it isn't just senior citizens who were fooled by the ballots in Palm Beach county. At least two of my classmates voted accidentally for Buchanan, as did my quantum mechanics professor. Furthermore, a greater problem with the ballots is that, as far as I know, they haven't been in the two-page format in the past, so some people who have voted in many elections before weren't used to the format. I understand many of the lines were as long in Palm Beach as they were in Broward (where I voted), and I'd imagine a lot of folks were in a hurry to get to work. I'd imagine most people who found out about their erroneous votes either did so after hearing about it on the news or by talking to others about the ballot. Obviously it's dangerous to put too much stock in peoples's memories of who they think they voted for ... but so far, the numbers reflect that the vote was screwed up. Palm Beach is a Democratic stronghold these days, and Buchanan got more than THREE TIMES as many votes in Palm Beach than he did even in places like Hillsborough or Pinellas counties or around Pensacola, which are the strongest conservative strongholds in the state. Whether to do anything about that is another matter, of course, as is the issue of what to do about it. To give the answer of "tough luck" or some analogue thereof will probably be a lot tougher than usual, both because of the closeness of the election and the potential appearance of impropriety (though Jeb Bush has done very well so far at avoiding appearances of impropriety). I don't think they'll do it, but it would be fun to see a re-vote in Palm Beach. Hmm -- maybe we'll get a few reporters in town! --Raj Dhuwalia P.S. You youngins, this election will have major quizbowl relevance for years to come -- so Pay Attention!
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