Recount Redux

Palm Beach County's disputed presidential ballots are again being examined as journalists and others on Tuesday began inspecting more than 20,000 votes that computers rejected.

Representatives from The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post and the Republican Party peered at the punch-card ballots as election officials held them up, noting which had pregnant, hanging, or unblemished chads.

Reporters in Gainesville were also examining Alachua County's ballots, and examinations were scheduled Wednesday in Broward, Pasco, Santa Rosa, Osceola, Okaloosa, and Highlands counties. Ballots in several other counties were examined by media outlets before the holidays.

News organizations are reviewing rejected ballots following Texas Gov. George W. Bush's razor-thin victory over Vice President Al Gore. Bush carried Florida by 537 votes out of 6 million cast.

Republicans have been critical of the media effort, saying it is pointless.

"We're not here because we want to be here," said Brigham McCown, a GOP attorney. "There's no final exact number. Everyone's going to see something different."

Palm Beach County was in the world spotlight for weeks after the Nov. 7 election, after some Democrats complained that its ballots were confusing. Some voters said they believed they mistakenly voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Gore or for more than one candidate.

At Gore's request, officials began a manual recount of all 460,000 ballots cast in the county, but the 188 votes Gore picked up in that examination were not counted in the state's official total.

The media review is taking place in a small room at the Palm Beach County Governmental Center. Two elections officials sat on one side of a rectangular table, holding up ballots for the reporters on the opposite side.

The ballot review is scheduled to run five hours a day and will take several days to complete.

The inspection did not attract the attention that the official recounts did. But a couple of tourists stopped by to see the elections office that captured worldwide attention.

Sharon Luebbers, 43, of New Smyrna Beach, posed for a photograph under a sign, holding a balloon she received for her birthday four days before the election. The balloon pictured a bunch of candles and said, "I demand a recount."

Luebbers, an artist, decided to travel to some of Florida's contested election sites. She and her travel companion said they weren't aware of the media ballot inspection, but supported it.

"If the media doesn't do it, somebody else will," said Melanie West, 37.

Some elections officials were less pleased.

"It's a long tedious process, and for what purpose, I'm really not sure," said Theresa LePore, Palm Beach County's supervisor of elections.