By RACHEL LA CORTE, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) - A research firm hired by several of the nation's largest news organizations began surveying thousands of presidential ballots Monday in an effort to create an independent record of the disputed Florida election.
The National Opinion Research Center, a nonprofit firm affiliated with the University of Chicago, plans to build a database that will describe in detail the estimated 180,000 ballots that did not register a vote for president during machine counts.
News organizations overseeing the review include The Associated Press, CNN, The New York Times, The Palm Beach Post, St. Petersburg Times, Tribune Publishing, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
The project begins almost two months after the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) stopped the ongoing recounts in Florida.
George W. Bush (news - web sites) captured a razor-thin victory over Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites), carrying Florida by 537 votes out of 6 million cast, giving him the state's 25 electoral votes and thus the national election.
``This project was undertaken to provide an independent record of rejected ballots in the race that ultimately determined the 2000 presidential election,'' said Kevin Walsh, AP's chief of bureau for Florida. ``Our goal is to inspect and classify these ballots, and certainly not to challenge the certification of results.''
The review started Monday in five of Florida's 67 counties - Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk and Pasco. The statewide review is expected to take at least eight weeks to complete.
The research firm trained teams of workers to use the same standard in reviewing rejected ballots, including overvotes where voters indicated a preference for more than one candidate and undervotes where machines recorded no vote.
For instance, in the 24 counties that use punchcard ballots, workers will simply describe distinguishing marks. That includes whether chads - the tiny perforated squares that voters punch out with a stylus to record their vote - are missing, hanging by one or more corners, or ``dimpled.''
Each worker is to make a determination and is not supposed to discuss the evaluation with other team members.
The news organizations plan to use the database to produce their own stories. The data also will be released to the general public for additional research.
Other Florida newspapers represented through their parent companies are The Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel based in Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Ocala Star-Banner, The (Lakeland) Ledger and The Gainesville Sun.
Other news organizations have been invited to join the effort and share the costs, which are expected to exceed $500,000.
In an unrelated ballot review, The Miami Herald is working with an accounting firm to review the estimated 60,000 undervote ballots that were rejected in the presidential race statewide. The Herald hopes to be completed by mid-March, said Mark Seibel, the Herald's assistant managing editor.
The conservative legal group Judicial Watch is also conducting its own statewide review, which is expected to take months.
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