Butterfly ballots banned in Massachusetts

BOSTON, (Reuters) - The type of ballot at the center of the presidential election firestorm in Florida -- the so-called butterfly ballot -- was banned in Massachusetts after a congressional primary recount in 1996.

Circumstances of the butterfly ballot complaints in Massachusetts were different from those that engulf the presidential vote in Florida, where George W. Bush leads Vice President Gore by a razor-thin margin with overseas absentee ballots yet to be tallied and more recounts expected.

Four years ago, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justices recounted by hand disputed ballots from a Democratic congressional primary, reversing the outcome and giving William Delahunt the victory by 110 votes.

Delahunt went on to win the general election that year and won a third term to the House on Tuesday.

The problem in Massachusetts was the chad -- the piece of paper that is supposed to separate completely from a hole-punch ballot. When it does not, counting machines may not be able to "read" the ballot properly.

"You have to review them by hand to see the effect of where somebody tried to put a puncture mark in and were unsuccessful," said Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin.

"This is exactly what we had with the Delahunt case four years ago. That's why I outlawed and decertified this system," Galvin said.

In Florida, the problem with the butterfly is more complex and, to date, mainly has to do with ballot design and voter error.

Hundreds of voters in Palm Beach County have protested what they said was a confusing ballot layout that prompted them to cast votes by mistake for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan rather than their preferred candidate, Gore.

Some 19,000 Palm Beach ballots were disqualified because voters mistakenly punched their ballot sheet twice, effectively casting votes for two candidates.

With Gore and Bush only a few hundred votes apart in Florida, the disputed Palm Beach vote could be crucial to the outcome of the election in which almost 100 million people voted nationally.

In addition, there have been reports that huge numbers of other ballots statewide did not register a vote for president, possibly because machines could not read them.

"I know from my own experience that there are literally tens of thousands of ballots down there that (have) puncture marks that this machine ... will not count," Galvin said.

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