Point being, there is no reason, what-so-ever that a vote count would exceed 100%. Pure & simple
Not if you see it as a straight vote count, but I have explained to you how the count worked in St Lucie county.
If the entire ballot were on a single card, instead of two separate cards, the machine would never calculate a vote count over 100 percent. However, with candidates for the varioous races on one card, and proposed constitutional amendments on a second card, there are some people who simply do not care about one or the other, and do not vote that particular card.
When the cards are fed through the optical scanner, it only counts as 'cast cards' those that have votes recorded on them. If I voted for the various races (president, senator, congressman, state offices, which judges to retain, etc), that is counted as one card 'cast'. If I voted on any or all of the constitutional amendments on the second card, that is counted as the second card 'cast', so I would have two cards 'cast' for one complete ballot. If I decided not to vote for
either any of the candidate races
or vote on any of the amendments, that card would not have been counted as 'cast' and would have been rejected as a blank card. The machines, I suppose, could be reprogrammed each election, depending on whether the complete ballot is a one card ballot or a multicard ballot, at extra expense, but they weren't.
Why?
Blame the Republicans, for two reasons. First, our legislature is Republican controlled, and our governor is a Republican. They would have to approve the extra expense to reprogram the machines. Second, each and every one of the numerous, long winded amendments was proposed by our Republican legislature, to further their agenda (prevent gay marriage, deny state or federal funds for planned parenthood programs that include abortion as an option, etc). Not one of the amendments was on the ballot due to a citizen initiative. The Republicans are the reason we had a two card ballot to begin with.