“Dimpled” punch-card ballots in three Florida counties might end up making Al Gore president, but if the recount were going on in Ohio, the drama would probably be playing out much differently.

        In Ohio, unlike Florida, George W. Bush's legal team would have some precedent that might make it impossible for a county elections board to count ballots with only a small depression, or “dimple,” instead of being punched straight through.

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        “Dimples just wouldn't fly in Ohio,” said Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican.

        The Gore forces in Florida are hoping that those ballots being counted in three Florida counties that have a “dimple” instead of a hole next to Al Gore's name will be counted.

        The Florida Supreme Court, in its Tuesday decision, gave the counties no standards to use in determining voters' intent, leaving the door open for the Democratic-controlled elections boards to count “dimpled” ballots for Mr. Gore.

        In Florida, county elections boards are dominated by one party or the other. But in Ohio, the law requires counties to have four-member elections boards split down the middle — two Democrats, two Republicans.

        When a board of elections in an Ohio county is split on an issue, the tie is broken by the secretary of state, the state's chief elections officer.

        So if this historic and controversial recount were happening in an Ohio county, chances are the question of whether to count dimpled ballots would end up in a tie vote — with Mr. Blackwell, a Republican, breaking the tie.
       

Hanging chads, sure
               Mr. Blackwell said he would rely on the opinion of his predecessor as secretary of state, Gov. Bob Taft, who was asked in 1994 to decide the question of what ballots could and could not be counted in a hand recount.

        According to Mr. Taft, “hanging chads” — bits of ballot hanging by only one or two corners — can be counted, because the voter's intention is clear.

        Dimples, Mr. Taft said, are out.

        “It is mere speculation to conclude that a bulging or indented chad indicates voter intent,” Mr. Taft wrote in his opinion.

        The voter who created an indentation or bulge, Mr. Taft said, may simply have changed his or her mind.

        Mr. Taft's opinion arose in an Ohio House race in Huron and Lorain counties where the official count showed a difference of only nine votes between two candidates.

        His opinion governed the hand counting of punch card ballots in that case; and Mr. Blackwell said he would make the same decision if faced with a similar vote-counting dispute.
       

Lone criterion

               The only guidance Ohio election law gives on which ballots count and which don't is a provision saying that no ballot should be counted “which is marked contrary to law, except that no ballot shall be rejected for any technical error unless it is impossible to determine the voter's choice.”

        But Tim Burke, a Democrat who is chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, said county elections boards are free to set their own standards.

        If there were such a dispute in Hamilton County and Mr. Blackwell's office relied on the 1994 Taft opinion, Mr. Burke said, he would consider it “advisory” and not binding.

        Mr. Burke said he thinks that while Mr. Taft's 1994 opinion is “not unreasonable,” local election officials should have the leeway to make determinations about disputed ballots on their own.

        “You have to look at every ballot on a ballot-by-ballot basis to determine what the voter meant to do,” Mr. Burke said.

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