Counties like Henry, Rock Island and Bond have added ballot measures asking if they want Illinois to allow its residents to carry concealed weapons, reports the Associated Press.
"More often, however," it adds, "the ballots were discarded because the voting machine failed to accurately record the intention of the voter".
In rural Gadsden County, just west of Tallahassee, in northern Florida, the Bush campaign had not asked to examine ballots, but it did accuse local election officials of overstepping their authority during the recount by adding 187 ballots that had been disqualified in the Nov. 7 vote.
These ballots add additional uncertainty to the vote beyond the outstanding mail ballots.
Its reason was that a different provision of Florida election laws (a provision that addresses damaged or defective ballots) says that no vote shall be disregarded "if there is a clear indication of the intent of the voter as determined by the canvassing board" (adding that ballots should not be counted "if it is impossible to determine the elector's choice").
The way to conclude this election in a fair and accurate and final way is for the State of Florida to count the remaining overseas ballots, add them to the certified vote and announce the results, as required by Florida law.
That could add about 325,000 ballots to the state's total, bringing turnout there close to its 2008 levels.
Ms. McCormack, the Los Angeles County official, said the problem in Florida was that officials there had tried to do too many things at once -- check the initial county tallies, make rulings on recounts and add up absentee ballots -- when most states take those steps one at a time.
Cartmail added that ballot preparations are ongoing.
Joseph Napolitan, a political consultant, added: "Early balloting takes away the excitement of an election.
