Theresa LePore
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Theresa LePore is a former Supervisor of Elections for Palm Beach County, Florida. She is most notable as the person who designed the infamous "butterfly ballot", used in the 2000 presidential election.[1] This would lead the press to nickname her "Madame Butterfly." Following the controversial results of the 2000 election, she lost her re-election bid in September 2004 and left office in January 2005.
[edit] Education
LePore grew up in Palm Beach County, attending Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach.
In the 1980s she worked as a junior elections clerk in Palm Beach County; by the time of her departure in 1996, she would attain the position of Chief Deputy Supervisor. During the 1980s she also moonlighted as a ramp clerk at Palm Beach International Airport; she later became friendly with pilots of the private jets of Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, and occasionally worked as a flight attendant on Khashoggi's flights.[2]
LePore was a registered Republican, but then switched her party to Democratic because, according to her, "when I ran [for the supervisor position], I chose Democrat because the incumbent was Democrat and the county registration is predominantly Democrat."[citation needed] After the 2000 election, she switched her party registration to No Party Affiliation.
LePore is (or was) a member of the following organizations:
- American Society of Public Administration [1]
- The Election Center
- Kiwanis of Flagler Sunrise
- League of Women Voters
- International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers
- Women's Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches
- Florida State Association of Supervisors of Election. Theresa served terms as Secretary, Vice-President, and President of FSASE.
After her final term as Supervisor of Elections, she was employed by the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office for a short period, enabling her to receive her full pension from Palm Beach County.
She is currently employed at Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach, Florida as director of development.[2]
[edit] Election Controversies
2000 was not the only time that LePore faced unfriendly public scrutiny of her work.
To accommodate the large number of Presidential candidates eligible in Florida, LePore designed a staggered two-page format with candidate names on alternating sides of a central punch button column. In the 1996 election,[3] the butterfly ballot caused an estimated 14,000 votes for the second candidate on the left (Bob Dole) to be miscast, but this did not affect the election outcome and went unnoticed at the time. In the 2000 election, the miscast votes would have been a decisive reversal and consequently achieved notoriety. A study by the "The Palm Beach Post" concluded that voters confused by Palm Beach County's butterfly ballot cost Al Gore the presidency.[4]
Responding to public anger at the punch card systems, LePore bought DRE voting machines from Sequoia Voting Systems in 2002. This choice came under fire from voting experts, notably Rebecca Mercuri.[5]
In November 2004, during her last election as a lame-duck supervisor, LePore faced one final round of criticism when the new touch screen machines apparently recorded 88,048 more votes than there were voters. This was later attributed to accidental double entry of data from some precincts.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Tuchman, Gary (2001-01-05). Ballot nightmare lingers for Palm Beach elections chief. Cable News Network.
- ^ WSJ Washington Wire column, December 1, 2000
- ^ Tognazzini, Bruce (2001-01). The Butterfly Ballot: Anatomy of a Disaster. AskTog.
- ^ Newspaper: Butterfly ballot cost Gore White House (2001-03-11).
- ^ Lubell, Sam (2003-05-15). To Register Doubts, Press Here. Equal Justice Foundation.
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