SANFORD, Fla. -- Nearly a month before Election
Day, the elections supervisor in Seminole County
allowed a fellow Republican to spend more than a week
correcting thousands of absentee ballot applications she
had set aside because of a computer error.

The decision by Supervisor Sandra Goard and the
unsupervised work done by Michael Leach of the
Florida Republican Party are at the heart of a lawsuit
that would, if successful, give Democrat Al Gore nearly
4,800 additional votes -- more than enough to claim
Florida and the presidency.

. . .

Behind the problem are the thousands of absentee ballot
applications mailed out statewide by Florida's political
parties. A printing glitch stripped the required
voter-identification number from about 80 percent of the
ballots mailed by Republicans in Seminole County.

The Bergen Record

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), November 29, 2000