GAO: Fla. undervote not due to machines

[Freddie Stubbs]

By MITCH STACY, Associated Press WriterWed Feb 6, 9:20 PM ET

Touch-screen voting machines likely performed properly and were not to blame for the large number of undervotes in a congressional race in 2006, as the loser has suggested, federal investigators said in a draft report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office plans to present the report Friday to a House task force that has been investigating the 13th Congressional District election. Republican Vern Buchanan beat Democrat Christine Jennings by 369 votes to win the seat 15 months ago.

At issue was whether malfunctioning ATM-style voting machines failed to record more than 18,000 votes in the congressional election, or whether many voters — nearly 15 percent of the total — just skipped that particular race on their touch-screen ballots.

Jennings has asked Congress to throw out the election results, claiming that the Sarasota County voting machines failed to count the votes. Buchanan was declared the winner after two recounts and a state audit found no problems with the machines.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080207/ap_on_re_us/florida_election

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I still refuse to vote on an electronic machine. Thank goodness, I still have to option of a paper

ballot.