Via the AP: Review Finds Fla. Counties Voted for Bush

A newspaper’s review of ballots cast in three north Florida counties where registered Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans showed just what officials reported: The counties’ voters did on Election Day as they often do, voting for a Republican for president.

The Miami Herald review goes against Internet-fed rumors questioning whether there was a conspiracy against Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) in those counties.

Kerry won in much of South Florida, where voters vote on touch-screen machines that can’t be checked.

Reporters for the newspaper went over more than 17,000 optical scan ballots cast in three rural counties mentioned by doubters: Suwannee, Lafayette and Union. All three are overwhelmingly Democratic in registration, but chose President Bush.,

[…]

In Union County, where more than 75 percent of voters register as Democrats, The Herald counted 3,393 votes for Bush, 1,272 for Kerry and 15 that couldn’t clearly be counted. The official Union County total: 3,396 for Bush, 1,251 for Kerry and a few dozen that couldn’t be counted.

[…]

The Herald counted just under 60 percent of the votes in Suwannee County, where nearly 64 percent of the voters are registered Democrats. The newspaper’s total from those precincts essentially matched the county’s official total: 6,140 votes for Bush and 2,984 for Kerry.

In Lafayette County, 83 percent of voters are registered Democrats. But it too, is heavily conservative and deeply religious. There, the paper found 2,452 votes for Bush and 848 for Kerry, with 20 that couldn’t be clearly counted.

Of course, one doubts this will satisfy the conspiracy-minded.