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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- When the Broward County canvassing board showed up for work Thursday morning, waiting on its work table was a manila police envelope emblazoned with the words: "Crime. Found Property."
Inside were 78 "chads."
The chads, bits of paper punched out of a ballot when a vote is cast, were found on the floor in the room where a hand recount of presidential ballots began Wednesday. Republicans demanded that deputies sweep them up and take them into custody as evidence of possible vote tampering.
County Elections Supervisor Jane Carroll, a Republican member of the canvassing board, was unimpressed by the package.
"I'm not surprised," said Carroll, who opposed the recount. "This is what we expect."
The envelope was in the possession of a deputy overnight. Representatives from the Democratic and Republican parties joined two deputies camping out in a sealed room with the ballots. Democrat Al Gore gained seven votes after a full day of counting 20,000 ballots Wednesday.
Carroll said it's unlikely that all 78 of the chads fell out of spaces for the presidential race. She said there is no evidence of a conspiracy here.
"We go with the saying, Let the chads fall as they may," she said. "Chads are not partisan."
