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The 'reader' picked it up as an over vote and the ballots wasn't check for confirmation. Bush votes were thrown out as well as Gore's. But Gore lost the most over it.
However, the Florida state law states that the ballot is supposed to be looked at to try and determine who the voter was trying to vote for. The law was written we were coming away from simple voting and was trying to ensure that every type of voter would be protected.
The way the law was written, if a person voted for Bush, but wrote in "Micky Mouse', and "Micky Mouse' wasn't an office write in canidate, then the write in was ignored and the vote for Bush was to be counted. Yes, an overvote that contains an actual vote and a false write in can still be counted.
Those that vote for Bush and wrote in Bush and those that Voted for Gore and wrote in Gore.. those were votes by law that should have been counted. One would have to be an idiot not to be able to figure out the "intent" of the voter. THe SOE's broke the law when they were not counted. How long that practice had been going on, who knows. But we (the public) found out in the 2000 election that it was going on. Yet, not one SOE was held accountable or arrested. Which means it must have become standard procedure without changing the law on the books. (and the public didn't know)
Over votes that were really votes, Gore won Florida by a landslide.
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