What were overvotes in the Florida recount dispute?

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U.S. presidential election of 2000 — Bush v. Gore A Florida judge examining a challenged vote at an operations center in Plantation, Florida, during a recount of the state's U.S. presidential election ballots, 2000.

In the context of the 2000 Florida recount dispute, overvotes were ballots that recorded multiple votes for the same office. Because these ballots contained more than one selection for a single position, they were considered invalid for that specific race, as the voting machine could not determine the voter's single intended choice.1

These ballots were part of the broader set of contested issues during the recount process, alongside undervotes (ballots that recorded no vote for a given office) and various physical ballot irregularities, such as "hanging chads" and "pregnant chads," which election officials attempted to analyze to discern voter intent.1