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MIAMI — A test conducted minutes before the polls opened on Election Day showed that 13 of 20 voting machines were faulty at the two Miami-Dade County precincts with the highest rates of discarded ballots, The Miami Herald reported Friday. 

But poll workers did not take the machines out of service as rules required, perhaps causing more than 200 ballots to be improperly marked, according to the newspaper. 

Supporters of Vice President Al Gore argued unsuccessfully after the Nov. 7 election that thousands of ballots in Miami-Dade and statewide were improperly marked because of faulty voting machines, perhaps costing him the presidency. President-elect Bush won the state by 537 votes out of 6 million cast, and Florida’s 25 electoral votes proved to be decisive. 

County election officials said the machines were fine, and that the tests were flawed. They said the machines performed properly in earlier tests. 

The testers probably didn’t press hard enough or failed to make punches at the proper positions on the ballots, officials said. 

The machines require voters to slip a cardboard ballot into the machine and mark their candidates by punching out premarked holes, or chads. If the chads are not dislodged, the votes are not counted by the tabulation computers. The vote also is not counted if two or more candidates for that office are selected. 

During the test before Election Day, “We punch through every single position just to make sure everything is OK,” said John Clouser, assistant director for the supervisor of elections. “If it’s OK, we send (the machine) out.” 

Precinct workers deny that they tested the machines improperly. Sherrill Blue, who initialed three test ballots, said she did not know why the documents show the machines failed the test, but that workers “always make sure the holes go through.” 

Larry Williams, who worked at the same precinct, said he had trouble punching one of the ballots he tested. “I had to work it a little, but it went through,” he said. 

Yet, one of the test ballots he handled was missing punches, including one at Gore’s position. 

The two precincts in question had the highest rates – about 13 percent – of discarded presidential ballots in the county. That was more than double the discard rate in the 1996 presidential election. 

Ballots are rejected when counting machines don’t read punched holes or a voter marks too many candidates. 

The Herald’s review of election documents showed missed punches on six of the 10 machines at one of the precincts and on seven of the 10 machines at the other.