Vote counting irony

After watching this year's election fiasco I've been reading a description of the Bush v Gore mess in 2000 for comparison. The book is Courting Justice by David Boies. He was one of Gore's lawyers during that fiasco. The last three chapters are about Bush v Gore.

Much of the Bush v Gore argument ended up being the Gore camp wanting more votes to be counted (though they really only cared about 4 left leaning counties). The Bush camp wanted the results accepted as is (understandable, they were ahead). A consistent theme throughout the book is that the more votes that are counted the more Gore will gain over Bush. In this case the extra votes being counted were questionable ballots -- those not properly filled out but where the "intent of the voter" can be discerned, something Florida law allowed to be counted. Mr. Boies even seems to argue that the more votes counted in Republican counties, the better for Gore.

This leaves me wondering why this is the case. Could it be that on average Democrats don't know how to fill out a ballot, don't know how to follow directions filling out a ballot, or are afraid to ask for help? How does this compare to common stereotypes today of stupid Trump supporters?

I've read arguments by scholars that we should have some sort of minimal test for voting. The arguments tend by those of the left against "deplorables" (to stereotype broadly) and are in terms of trying to prevent the return of old, regressive policies as opposed to newly enacted progressive policies. This dovetails with arguments that conservatives are more likely to not have a college degree, etc. which I've seen since the 1980 election when I was first involved with major party politics.

Yet election vote counting shows an interesting contrast. Apparently it's Democrats who are more likely to be unable to fill out a ballot correctly. Should we perhaps ask whether those who can't vote properly are intelligent enough to choose a candidate properly?

[NOTE: I do NOT advocate establishing some sort of eligibility test for voting. It's far, far too easy to turn any requirement for voting into a partisan test (e.g. literacy "tests" in the Jim Crow south).