Dems Threaten Suit in Florida as More Purported Ballot Boxes Turn Up

NOVEMBER 8—Confusion continues in Florida over what appear to be locked ballot boxes containing uncounted votes. The Democrats are now threatening to sue over irregularities in the election. Reverend Jesse Jackson is reportedly on his way to Florida to investigate allegations of voter intimidation.

Police in Florida have checked out what look to be five purported ballot boxes at three elementary schools and at a gated community in Palm Beach County. The box inspected at Northboro Elementary School in West Palm Beach contained miscellaneous papers and no ballots, the police said. A clerk told police ballots had been taken out of the box and put in another one.

Another ballot box was discovered at Duncan Middle School. It apparently contained notebooks. A third was found at Timber Trace Elementary School. A polling booth volunteer claimed the locked ballot boxes actually were used to carry supplies.

Eyewitness News 25 reports that Monte Friedkin, with the local Democratic Party, found two more boxes at the Broken Sound gated community in Boca Raton, Florida, and police are there investigating.

Friedkin told the TV station the Democrats' attorneys will file a lawsuit in Tallahassee over alleged irregularities in the election.

Hundreds of voters in Palm Beach have complained that they were confused by the ballot and may have voted for Reform candidate Pat Buchanan by mistake. Buchanan drew more than 3400 votes in that area, far more than he was expected to take there and enough to tip the election from Democrat Al Gore. The ballots were designed by a Democratic election worker who told Salon she wanted to make the print bigger so elderly voters could read it.

Questioned about the ballots this afternoon, Florida governor Jeb Bush said the ballots were printed long ago, and anyone who objected to them should have complained long before now.