Approximately 180,000 ballots in Florida’s 67 counties are uncertified because they failed to register a “valid” vote for President. These ballots include those in which no vote was recorded (undervotes) and those in which people voted for more than one candidate (overvotes). NORC is examining the undervotes and overvotes.

The goal of the project is not to declare a “winner,” but rather to carefully examine the ballots to assess the relative reliability of the three major types of ballot systems used in Florida. The results of this assessment will help state legislatures, other decision-makers, and developers of ballot systems to work toward more reliable ballot systems in the future. The data archive containing the results of NORC’s work will be available for use by the news organizations, and by sponsoring the public soon thereafter.

As a result of the project, NORC published an article on the reliability of ballot systems in Florida. Member organizations of the Media Group tabulated vote totals under various voting standards or scenarios and published their stories on Novemeber 12, 2001.