By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 1:28 p.m. ET
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) -- Some supporters of Vice President Al Gore flooded the Palm Beach County elections office with calls, fearing they had accidentally cast their votes for Reform Party Candidate Pat Buchanan.
Buchanan got 3,407 votes for president in the heavily Democratic county Tuesday, more than he received in any other Florida county, according to unofficial returns from all precincts. With 100 percent of precincts reporting statewide, Gore was behind Texas Gov. George W. Bush by fewer than 1,800 votes, and Florida held the key to the outcome of the national race.
Two larger counties south of Palm Beach both had much lower Buchanan results -- 789 in Broward County and 561 in Miami-Dade County. In Duval County, a much more conservative county in northeast Florida, only 650 Buchanan votes were cast.
The confusion apparently arose from the way Palm Beach County's punch-card style ballot was laid out for the presidential race. Candidates are listed on both sides of the vertical row of holes where the voters punch their choices.