1) There are several different types of ballots and counting machines used across the state. Only about half the counties use the punch ballots that are the source of so much controversy in places like Volusia and Palm Beach (only about 1/5 of all counties nationwide use this system).  As it turns out, one is more likely to find pen marked ballots and scantron-like machines (considered the most accurate type of ballots and counting machines) in Florida's Republican dominated counties.  The outdated punch card and counting system is more commonly found in Democratic precincts, specifically the populous and largely Democratic counties in the South such as Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. Scientists and election officials know that this type of balloting system is the most unreliable and the most error ridden, primarily because the "chads" don't always come off and the machine can not read those ballots.  Therefore, more votes go uncounted in punch card system
compared to a scantron system.  That disparity would continue to exist following a second machine recount.  The only way to make up for the larger margin of error found in the punch card system is to manually count ballots cast in every county on which votes were cast but the machines did not read them.  Unreadable scanned ballots should also be visually inspected.

2) The most consistent approach taken across Florida during the so-called first recount was actually not recounting at all.  In other words, the idea that a recount occurred is a myth.  Only a few counties actually recounted all their ballots.  Even more amazing is that a few counties performed the type of hand recounting of machine unreadable ballots that the Bush campaign finds so deplorable, including Seminole (Bush netted 100 votes) and Orange (Gore netted 64 votes).  Click here for more details.  Very different approaches to recounting were taken by several counties making it impossible to claim that first recount was fair or consistent, especially when you consider the inherent inequities found in the different voting systems.

3) A handful of recounts of the recounts (or second recounts) have been conducted.  While all the world's attention focused on Volusia's second recount and the state's efforts to stop Palm Beach's recount, largely Republican Polk county quietly conducted a second recount which netted Bush 100 votes.  Here, they checked many ballots by hand to discern the "will of the voter," the same approach the Bush was working so vehemently to stop in Democratic counties.

4) The only way to resolve this equitably is to have a consistent recount in which every county runs their ballots through the machine again (a true recount) and no manual counts are allowed (something that favors the voter results in counties with more accurate voting systems) or every county runs their ballots again, with the option of manually discerning the will of the voter for ballots the machine does not read.  Of course the Florida Supreme Court tried to do this, only to get shot down by the Bush campaign's efforts in the US Supreme Court.