Callaway County clerk Linda Love is at a bit of a loss to explain the ballot problems in Florida. Callaway County uses the same kind of punchcard ballots and she’s not sure why the hand counts are coming out so differently. Love tests her counting machines on the Friday before every election and twice on election day itself. Love says those tests, and occasional recounts, almost always come out within one vote of the original count. She does suggest the more the ballots are handled, the more likely one of the holes will be accidentally knocked-out. Callaway County has used the punchcards for more than 20 years precisely because of their reliability.
