OCA RATON, Fla. - When Sandy Berner looked at her ballot Tuesday, she couldn't figure out which circle matched her candidate.
Berner, 62, called over her husband, but an election official forbade him from helping. So Berner squinted through her bifocals at the circles, arrows, and names crowding the ballot and checked the second circle, which she said she believed corresponded with Democrat Al Gore.
''It was very difficult and very confusing,'' said Berner while playing a hand of canasta at her country club. ''I'm pretty sure I accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan. I think I should have the right to vote over again.''
Berner is one of thousands of Palm Beach County residents who were contending yesterday that the ballot layout led them to vote for the wrong presidential candidate. Palm Beach County, long a Democratic stronghold, gave Buchanan the most votes of any county in the state. It also may have accidentally given the state of Florida's crucial electoral votes - and consequently, the national election itself - to Gore's only serious rival, George W. Bush.
As Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, the Republican candidate's brother, pointed out yesterday: The next leader of the free world may well be decided by a few thousand votes in the Sunshine State, many of which may be among those now being contested in Palm Beach County.
''When I got called to go back into the office at 4:30 in the morning, all 10 phone lines were ringing with calls from voters wanting to complain,'' said Bill Buck, Florida spokesman for the Democratic presidential campaign. ''I've never seen anything like it. America has never seen an election like this.''
Twenty-four hours after the polls closed in Florida, officials from both parties were huddling to consider their options.
Democrats filed a lawsuit and, from Tallahassee to Miami, complained that Haitian-American voters had been turned away from the polls, and in one case, that a highway patrol blockade discouraged voters in a minority neighborhood in the Florida Panhandle from going to the polls. Republicans argued that the vote was valid and that Democrats, Al Gore in particular, were scrounging for any way to stave off defeat.
Jane Carroll, the supervisor of elections in Broward County, which Gore apparently won overwhelmingly, blamed both parties for playing politics to the end.
''Compared to the number of people in the county, it was a fairly mild day for complaints,'' she said. ''I had more complaints from both parties. It was very, very partisan bickering.''
Under Florida law, a recount is automatic if the voting margin is within 0.5 percent. Gore and Bush each received 48.9 percent of the vote, with Bush ahead by fewer than 1,800 votes before the recount.
Nationally, the reverse was true, with Gore slightly ahead in the popular vote, making Florida's electoral votes essential to who takes the White House. The recount was expected to be completed late today, although Jeb Bush said that it could be up to 10 days before all absentee ballots are tabulated.
Two years ago, a court determined that voter fraud played a role in Miami's mayoral race.
The minuscule margin cast the brightest spotlight on Palm Beach County, where Buchanan won a surprising 3,407 votes. The controversial Reform Party leader won just 1,350 combined in the two more populous South Florida counties. In one of the state's most conservative areas, Duval County, Buchanan received 650 votes.
Giving ammunition to those arguing that the ballot was unfair and confusing, Florida election officials said last night that 19,120 ballots from Palm Beach County had showed votes for more than one presidential candidate. They were disqualified and not included in the overall count, they said. Democratic Party officials said those errant ballots may have been the result of many voters believing they had to punch for both president and vice president.
For their part, statewide Republican leaders were taking a wait-and-see attitude. Leo DiBenigo, Florida spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said they were focusing on the recount but that he was certain the final tally in Palm Beach County would not change the overall outcome.
At a late-afternoon news conference in Tallahassee, Jeb Bush recused himself from the committee overseeing the recount. ''Let the process work, but let's not exaggerate the concerns,'' he said. ''This is hugely important business. What's at stake is the next leader of the free world.''
Last night, 300 African-Americans concerned about their say in choosing the country's leader met in Miami's Little Haiti. Kendrick Meek, a Democratic state senator who serves on the Ethics and Election Committee, said they all alleged they had been turned away from the polls. Some were told they did not have proper identification; others were mistakenly not listed on voter rolls, Meek said.
Meek and US Representative Alcee L. Hastings, a Democrat from South Florida, promised more lawsuits against the state.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, an ardent Gore supporter, took to television to charge voter intimidation. At the Bush-Cheney headquarters in Broward County, where deflated red, white, and blue balloons littered the floor, coordinator Gwen Hankerson made similar charges, saying the office had at least 85 complaints from people who said they were denied a ballot. ''That's not normal,'' she said. ''I don't care if Palm Beach is necessarily going to change the outcome to where Gore goes to the top.''
Meek said the voters who were turned away should be given a chance to cast their ballots. Hastings went so far as to demand that a new election be held at least in Palm Beach County.
''A mistake was made that caused voters to make a mistake,'' he said. ''The voters should have a chance to correct that mistake.''
The problems arose from the butterfly design of the county's punch-card ballot. Candidates were listed on both sides of a vertical row of circles where voters mark their choices. The top hole was for Bush, listed at the top left; the second hole for Buchanan, printed on the top right; and the third hole was for Gore, listed beneath Bush on the left. Arrows pointed from the names to the proper circle.
Don A. Dillman of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, who has done research on the design of paper questionnaires, called the ballot confusing. ''I've never seen one set up like this,'' Dillman told The Associated Press. ''It's very confusing the way they have put things on the right side together with things on the left side. I can see why there might be a problem. If you passed over the first candidate to go for the second candidate, it's logical that you'd punch the second hole.''
Lawyers for Democrats filed suit at the Palm Beach County Courthouse yesterday, arguing that the ballot breeched state law, which they said requires that the circles align with the candidates' names in clear, vertical columns.
Some residents went to court to demand a new election, although Jeb Bush and other Republicans said a copy of the ballot was printed before the vote to handle any complaints.
Disgruntled voters have been flooding the county's Democratic campaign headquarters since early Tuesday. Officials said they have received about 2,000 complaints about the ballot.
''It was way too easy to make a mistake,'' said Larice Petit, 26, a student at Florida Atlantic University who went with six friends to the Democratic office to complain.
''No doubt many of us were robbed of our right to vote.''
