INTERNET

US polling officials have pored over thousands of ballot papers trying to detect voter intention in the tiny punched squares, categorising them as hanging chads (largely detached from the ballot paper), swinging chads (half-detached), dimpled chads (indented) and pregnant chads (bulging).

Officials have walked the length of counting rooms, scooping up fallen chads with the gum from sticky-backed notes.

But when the Washington Times quipped at the weekend that St Chad might be the patron saint of disputed elections, the Web site of the small Lichfield church suddenly appeared on political news sites, despite bearing no reference to the US election, just a list of church services, articles of local interest and a welcome note to pilgrims. Northern Ilinois University now has a link to the parish Web site on its Whitehouse 2000 election page.

In St Chad's online guest book, Chad Walker, from Georgia, wrote: "Being named Chad and well aware of the importance of bits of paper called chads I have been embarrassed by it all. Your Web site has restored some dignity to my name for me."

St Chad humbly stood down as bishop of the Northumbrians in AD667 after a dispute over who should be appointed. Visiting the British church's Web site, Sean Fitzpatrick, from Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, wrote: "The story of St Chad is a delicious coincidence. Al Gore would have said 'One Roman bishop!? There were Three! I want a recount.' Then he would have claimed to have been the model for Beowulf."

Another US visitor, Tracy, said: "The fact that there is a St Chad, and that he is revered because of his humility when he stepped down as bishop of York, is seen as delicious irony here. If only our own candidates would follow St Chad's example!"

Jill Warren, rector of St Chad's 16,000 souls, said: "We are delighted at the number of hits. Surfers, scraping the barrel for stories on chads, have hit our site and this is a new way of reaching out to people."

The volunteer who created and runs the site, Stephen Smith, has put in extra hours to respond to US messages in the guest book. "Normally, we get one message every six weeks, about the history of the saints or related issues. We have just had nine chad messages in one weekend."

He said he did not expect to attract chad-generated advertising revenue.

"Once the election has been sorted out, our traffic will go back to normal," Mr Smith said.