FL-13 goes to recount , repub leads by 364 votes, dem says voting irregularities

[Herman Munster]

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/15956293.htm

After spending millions of dollars attacking each other in one of the most-caustic local campaigns in memory, Vern Buchananand Christine Jennings waited into early this morning to learn which would be sent to Congress.

The answer might not come for days, as the close vote and complaints of voting irregularities in Sarasota County could lead to a recount.

In complete but unofficial returns, Buchanan beat Jennings 50.08 percent to 49.92 percent in one of the closest local races in history. Just 364 of the more than 237,000 votes cast separated the two, a difference small enough to fall under the state's automatic recount law, said Kendall Coffey, Jennings' campaign attorney.

"It's a submicroscopic margin," he said. "You don't know who won the election at this point."