The New Hanging Chads

By Julie Rawe Sandeep Kaushik; Jeffrey Ressner

A recount has confirmed that George W. Bush won in Ohio, though Jesse Jackson last week lent his support to a lawsuit challenging the results because of irregularities. But it isn't the only place where ballots were being scrutinized:

???San Diego's unbubbled ovals After Mayor Dick Murphy beat write-in candidate Donna Frye by 2,108 votes, a recount turned up 5,547 ballots that had been rejected because voters who wrote in her name failed to fill in the oval next to it. As Murphy, a Republican, was sworn in for a second term last month, Frye told TIME, "I doubt I'll be going gently into that good night."

???Washington's signature scans When Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi edged out attorney general Christine Gregoire by a mere 42 votes in an automatic machine recount, the Democrats raised $750,000 to count the votes again by hand. This uncovered 573 ballots that had been rejected owing to problems with scanning voter signatures in a heavily Democratic district. When Republicans failed in an effort to block those votes from being counted, Gregoire won by 129 votes. As Rossi called for a new election last week, a Democratic spokeswoman scoffed: "This isn't a video game where you can go and feed in more quarters."

???Montana's double-marked ballots With control of the state legislature hinging on a three-way contest in Lake County, Democrat Jeanne Windham and the Constitution Party's Rick Jore wound up in a 1,559-to-1,559 tie. But those totals included seven ballots marked for both Jore and the Republican also-ran--votes that recount officials awarded to Jore. The Montana Supreme Court last week threw out "one or more" of the double-marked ballots, thus handing victory to Windham and the statehouse to the Democrats. --By Julie Rawe. Reported by Sandeep Kaushik and Jeffrey Ressner