Theresa LePore, 45, is the
supervisor of elections and one of three members of the election canvassing board in
Palm Beach County, FL.
You know what they say about
good intentions, and with the best of intentions LePore designed the infamous "
butterfly ballot". Worried about small print confounding the county’s many elderly voters if all 10 presidential candidates on the ballot were crammed on to a single page, she thought the two page design would make it easier for them to vote. Instead, it played with their spatial perception and thousands of elderly Jewish voters, some of them
Holocaust survivors, accidentally voted for anti-semite and
Adolf Hitler fan
Pat Buchanan instead of
Al Gore.
So good intentions led this
Democrat to make what many angry Democrats believe was the mistake that cost Al Gore the 2000 presidential election. LePore was stunned by the events of the election and the angry outcry, and she was very reclusive during the recount and the attending publicity. Occasionally, she could be seen,
Jackie Onassis-like, hiding behind a pair of large sunglasses, accompanied by two sherrif’s deputies.