Dave McPhail

A "petard" is a bomb at the end of a long pole used to blow open castle gates. A group of soldiers would light the fuse, then run at the gate with the pole. If they misjudged the length of the pole in relation to the size of the bomb, they would be blown over the wall, "hoist on our own petard."

That is exactly what happened with the now infamous "butterfly ballots" in Palm Beach County, Florida for last Tuesday's presidential election.

Palm Beach County elections supervisor Theresa LePore, a Democrat, designed the butterfly ballot.

Deroy Murdock in a National Review On-line article stated; "Ironically, LePore and other officials used the butterfly format to show candidates' names in large print to help visually-impaired voters."

"They deliberately did it that way because of our senior citizens," Democratic state representative Lois Frankel told the Wall Street Journal. "They wanted to have the writing big. If they did it small, it would have been on one page."

Therefore, Theresa LaPore designed a ballot specifically intended to make it easier for Algore to win Florida by using larger print in order for whom? Senior citizens. Retired senior citizens. Retired senior citizens from New York State. Retired democrat senior citizens from New York State. Visually impaired retired senior citizens from New York State, a predominately democratic state.

Election Fraud? Perhaps that was the original intent, perhaps not. But everyone had a chance to object to the use of the butterfly ballots prior to the election. Even the Republicans didn't object to their use.

But that still doesn't negate the fact that a case could be made for, at the very least, the appearance of impropriety with the decision to use a larger typeface in the design of the Florida butterfly ballot to make it easier for some folks to be able to vote for Algore.

Was it that possible motivation that has resulted in the current election dilemma? We may never know.

But if so, then the Palm Beach County election officials could say as Shakespeare said, "We are hoist on our own petard."