The percentage of nonvotes -- 1.3 percent -- is modest compared to the days of ''hanging'' and ''pregnant chads.'' But in Tuesday's race, every vote was crucial. In a seven-candidate field, Ellyn Bogdanoff beat Oliver Parker by just 12 votes.
''These were the new machines,'' said Chas Brady, a spokesman for Parker's campaign. ``This was not supposed to happen.''
Bogdanoff had a ready explanation for the mystery. She theorized that some of the people who cast nonvotes were among the county's true-blue Democrats who were appalled to find a ballot with only Republicans.
''That would make a heck of a lot of sense if you were looking for a Democrat on the ballot,'' she said.
PUSH THE `VOTE'
Election Systems & Software, maker of the $17.2 million system in use in Broward, believes that some voters failed to push the ''vote'' button at the conclusion of the ballot -- akin to hitting the ''send'' button to dispatch an e-mail.
The company says voters might have been confused by the ballot's ''review'' screen, since there was only one item on the ballot to review, said Broward Mayor Ilene Lieberman, who talked to ES&S officials Wednesday.
When voters hit the ''send'' button after failing to select a candidate, the touch screen gives them a warning. But it doesn't prevent them from voting anyway or, in this case, nonvoting.
That's probably what many did, suggested Gisela Salas, the former Miami-Dade deputy elections supervisor who now works for newly appointed Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes.
''It happens in every election,'' Salas said. ``There are people who make the choice not to select any candidates.''
Brady, spokesman for Parker, the second-place finisher, doesn't buy that theory, since there's just one page on the ballot.
''It's not as though they're on Page 5 and are tired of voting,'' he said.
And Lieberman, a Democrat, believes that anyone who would take the time to go to the polls for such a small election would want their vote to count.
''It's incomprehensible that 134 people went to the polls and didn't cast votes,'' said Lieberman, who served on the canvassing board that oversaw Tuesday night's count. ``We need to find an answer to this question.''
ADD PRINTERS
Lieberman has advocated adding printers to the touch-screen machines to create a paper record of each vote cast. Voters would be able to see the printout to verify it before they leave the machine, a type of technology that many states are beginning to consider.
Lieberman has asked ES&S, which also manufactured Miami-Dade County's voting machines, to provide some answers on the nonvotes by 1:30 p.m. today, when the canvassing board meets for a state-mandated recount.
None of this would have drawn much notice had the race to fill the District 91 seat in Northeast Broward not been so breathtakingly close, said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore, who survived her own recount in 2000 after designing a controversial ''butterfly'' ballot.
''We always pray for large margins,'' she said.