Bob Spence, having acquired the actual numbers and types of doublepunched ballots in the four hand-counted precincts, has assembled an analysis of doublepunching patterns in Palm Beach.

It's fascinating, and a bit unexpected (at least in my own opinion). The report goes into sufficient detail, but the gist is that the vast majority of doublepunched ballots were not people who voted for Buchanan and Gore, which would be the expected result if people confused Buchanan's punch-hole for Gore's, then realized their mistake and punched Gore's. the most common errors were people who voted for both Bush and Buchanan or Gore and McReynolds. This pattern of error clearly points to one of the other postulates for multiple punches: the conclusion that the voter was supposed to punch holes for both the presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

I could detail this cognitive error, fostered and supported both by the layout and the textual instructions on the ballot, but the Slate story mentioned here a few days ago does amuch better job of this.

More interesting ammunition for this week's political theatre (pun intended), the legal battles.

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Update (11/13): Bob has updated the numbers in his report. It turns out that the most common mistake (80 ballots) was for Buchanan and Gore, with Gore/McReynolds and Bush/Buchanan coming in second and third respectively. His page has been updated.