Ballots punched twice, and therefore invalidated, could be counted in some way.

FORBES: Top Of The News: The Ingenious Florida System

Gore is also convinced that his team may have found the reason so many Palm Beach ballots were clearly punched through in all the boxes except the presidential one.

CNN: Bush's Contested Lead

Similarly, Christopher said concerns about possible remedies persuaded the Gore camp early on to shift from its focus on double-punched, so-called "butterfly ballots, " in Palm Beach County to disputed ballots in areas where there appeared to be irregularities.

CNN: latimes.com: Anxious Christopher sounds conciliatory notes

Another 19, 147 ballots had more than one hole punched for president.

CNN: Republicans, Democrats clash in Palm Beach county amid recount

Deutsch said Palm Beach Circuit Judge Kathleen Kroll postponed certification of the vote in Palm Beach County until she hears a challenge on Tuesday, but he said the larger issue is how to handle 19, 000 ballots discarded because voters "double punched" candidates in the presidential race.

CNN: voter protest

Yesterday, at the end of a news conference that followed the decision by U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks , Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz appeared for Democratic voters who say they punched the wrong holes in their Palm Beach County ballots.

FORBES: Top Of The News: The Ingenious Florida System

Callers to conservative talk-radio shows made an issue of the fact that it was an openly gay judge, Broward County canvasser Judge Robert W. Lee, who was accepting ballots that were merely indented, not fully punched through.

CNN: Bush's Contested Lead