Problems with the voting system in Florida are typical of the rule, not the exception, in US elections, according to a study published yesterday by the Los Angeles Times.
The paper said its study of voting systems in 12 states across the US found "a shoddy system that can only be trusted when the election isn't close."
"Because ballots can be bought, stolen, miscounted, lost, thrown out or sent to Denmark, nobody knows with any precision how many votes go uncounted in American elections," the paper concludes.
Some of the problems:
In Texas, "vote whores" do favours in return for people's absentee ballots. Sometimes the canvassers or consultants, as they prefer to be called, simply buy the ballots or steal them from mailboxes.
Alaska has more registered voters than voting-age people.
Indiana, which encourages voting with mail-in sign-ups and at driver's licence bureaus, has jammed its registration lists with felons, the dead and people who have registered several times.
In Wisconsin, some students told the paper they had voted as many as four times. "To many Americans, the right to vote is sacred, a hard-won legacy of the women's suffrage and civil rights movements." the Times said. "Yet the system that counts their ballots has fallen into disarray and dysfunction."
Most of the problems are caused by outmoded machines, poorly trained election workers and neglect, rather than outright fraud, the paper's study found.
"Your vote certainly counts," Dr Robert Richie of the Centre for Voting and Democracy told the Times. "On the other hand, your vote may not be counted."