Democracy Has a Layout
The answer came thirteen months after the election, in the December 2001 issue of the American Political Science Review. Six political scientists, led by Jonathan Wand, had spent the year inside the precinct returns of Palm Beach County, Florida. Their title surrendered the suspense: “The Butterfly Did It.” The butterfly ballot used in the county on November 7, 2000, had caused more than 2,000 Democratic voters to vote by mistake for Pat Buchanan, the Reform Party candidate. Florida had certified George W. Bush the winner by 537 votes, 2,912,790 to 2,912,253. A page layout had moved nearly four times the number of votes that decided the presidency.
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