Nearly one in six registered voters requested early ballots this year, and more than half have returned them, state officials said.

"The law says you only count the earlier ballot," Mr. Mandelker said.

Although this demand was rejected before the conclave began, no serious candidates were proposed in the early ballots.

But late Wednesday, officials discovered that 67,000 absentee and early ballots had not been counted.

An earlier ballot, at a provincial party conference on April 4, had collapsed amid scuffles and evidence of vote-rigging.

In early ballots, Benelli came within nine votes.

Florida law requires local election officials to provide polling places where voters can cast early ballots.

However, Hamas is challenging his authority to call an early parliamentary ballot, saying such a move would amount to an attempted coup.

Lambruschini received a majority of the votes in the early ballots, but failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority.

There was a clear majority in the earlier ballot for me.