''The failure of the machine tests illuminates another dark side of the election that thrust Palm Beach County into the glare of the national spotlight: Even poll workers struggled to punch chads the morning of Nov. 7, 2000. And yet, they did nothing about it, letting voters cast ballots all day on those same machines.

In the county's 531 polling places, 261 had machines that registered errors on the tests conducted before the polls opened at 7 a.m. If that happens, poll workers are supposed to seek a replacement machine. None did.

"That's cute. They didn't even notice?" said University of Iowa Associate Professor Doug Jones, an election equipment expert. "In the morning test, if they have a machine that leads them to a dimple, then they were plain careless."

In all, 11.6 percent of the 4,867 test ballots completed that morning recorded errors in the presidential column. The most common error? Skipping a chad, or several chads. In 65 cases, a poll worker didn't punch out a single one of the 10 chads representing the presidential candidates.''

- The Palm Beach Post (Dec 9, 2001)