PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — This week will mark 25 years since a historic presidential election that came down to just a few hundred votes here in Florida and Palm Beach County was ground zero.
We are looking back with some of the key people at the forefront of that election, which took weeks to resolve and went all the way to the supreme court.
WPTV Anchor Tania Rogers is listening to the woman who found herself at the center of the chaos.
Election Day, Nov. 7, 2000, voters headed to the polls to cast their ballot. In Palm Beach County, there were early signs that something was wrong.
"Probably mid-morning, when several legislators walked in the office, saying that we have a problem," Former Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore told WPTV. "And then the phone started ringing, with people saying they thought they made a mistake in voting."
LePore told WPTV Anchor Tania Rogers that since there were so many presidential candidates, they tried to format the ballot the best they could, especially for the county's large senior population.
“Trying to make sure that voters with disabilities would have an easy time voting, so I was very cognizant of the size of the print on the ballot," she said. "If we would have put all of the candidates on one page, the type-font would have been pretty small."
On Election Night, it was not only unclear who won the presidency but there was also the discovery of thousands of votes cast for reform-party candidate Pat Buchanan, thanks to the butterfly-ballot format.
“They inserted it into the machine and apparently they weren't paying attention to which hole they were punching," LePore told WPTV, "and a lot of them punched the hole where Buchanan's name was, instead of Bush or Gore's name."
It was the beginning of what would be weeks of recounts and protests.
Watch the 2000 Election Special: Bush v. Gore—Hanging in the Balance only on WPTV on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m.
