Buchanan (R) wins FL-13 recount, Jennings (D) likely to sue Monday in court for a re-vote

[Herman Munster]

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/NEWS/611180778

The recount in the 13th Congressional District came to an end on Friday, but unanswered questions about an abnormally high undervote continued, setting the stage for an anticipated legal battle that could start early next week. The recount and final tabulations of the military and overseas ballots show that while Democrat Christine Jennings trimmed Republican Vern Buchanan's lead, Buchanan still had a narrow 369-vote edge. "These are the official results," said Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent, a Republican. "Our job is done."

--

Buchanan's campaign said Jennings' campaign has been clearly laying the groundwork for a court challenge for weeks, including collecting eyewitness testimony from voters who say they had trouble registering their votes. "Based on what they have said and done, we think it will go to the courts," said Sally Tibbetts, spokeswoman for Buchanan's campaign.

Although the state Division of Elections is expected to audit the voting process in Sarasota County beginning next week, it isn't expected to produce results within the 10-day window the Jennings campaign would have to challenge the results. If Jennings' campaign goes to court, they would likely push for a revote. Coffey said that judges have allowed for new elections in disputed mayoral elections in Miami, so there is precedent in Florida to have such a do-over. Key to Jennings' campaign would be to show that voters not only had votes disappear but that a number of people actually watched votes for Jennings appear to turn into Buchanan votes.

"The problem that has consistently arisen is that when a voter makes a selection for Ms. Jennings on the electronic voting equipment, her opponent's name is either immediately highlighted, or appears incorrectly as the choice in the machine summary," Coffey wrote to Dent. "In one notable instance at the Gulf Gate Library precinct, a married couple each independently had the same problem on machines at that site -- they selected Christine Jennings and her opponent's name appeared highlighted instead. ... There are multiple other complaints from that site as well as from other early voting locations."

[trumad]

1. I say have another election with different machines.

that will settle it.

[Eric J in MN]

2. For one race, hand-counting is fast.

This is a job for...

PUBLICLY HAND-COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS.

[williesgirl]

3. A new election is clearly called for here. recommended

[GregD]

4. Time for a showdown

I learned last night that quite a little gathering has formed in Florida for this.

Lowell and Holly are both there, and will challenge the results on behalf of the voters.
http://www.voteraction.org/teambios.html

Also present are computer scientists David Dill (Verified Voting), David Jefferson (was on the California Voting Systems and Procedures Panel) and Dan Wallach (Rice University). They are apparently asking to be allowed to examine the machines and their software, and requesting that they not be required to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Should be really interesting to see how this shapes up.

[annabanana]

5. This batch of machines is clearly hinkey. ..

Where had they been prior to the election? Who had access and when?

[Peace Patriot]

6. 18,000 voters chose not to vote for Congress in the hottest midterms in

living memory? And the difference between Jennings and Buchanan is 369 votes?!

Give me a break.

This is such crap, I can't believe it.

Well, one thing we know: Pelosi won't be swearing Buchanan in prematurely (as Hastert did in CA-50). At least I hope we know it.

These machines need to be SEIZED.

And what the hell is up with this FLA law that, with the state Div. of Elections auditing it next week, they won't produce findings until AFTER Jennings' 10-day window to file a court challenge? That is totally screwy--as is the use of TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code in any part of our election system, so that investigators of suspicious election results are required to sign a NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT to protect the goddamned electronic voting corporation's SECRETS??!!

Welcome to Stalinist Russia, folks.

One of the blockades protecting these election theft systems--and I mean all of them, paper trail or no trail--are the OTHER laws, whether antiquated or newly enacted, regarding audits and recounts. What good is a "paper trail" if there is no audit (as in many states)? What good is a "paper trail" in this high speed, secretive environment if there is only a 1% audit, which is ALSO selected by the secretly programmed machines? What good are "recounts" in a paperless system? And what good are "recounts" in ANY system, if they are so expensive, difficult and rare?

We should not only be requiring a true paper ballot backup in all elections, we should be requiring 100% audits of these secretly programmed machines everywhere they are used, in every election. That is the ONLY common sense position. There is no left, right or mainstream on this issue. We cannot allow risk to even ONE vote from SECRET corporate programming code! The situation right now is that, in many states, 99% of the votes are at risk, and in others, 100% of the votes are at risk. How upside down is THAT?

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. In a country that voted for Davis

by a wide margin over Crist.

[Chipper Chat]

24. That is the smoking gun right there.

Even Buchanan must have blushed when he saw this statistic.

[In Truth We Trust]

21. Ditto on the 18k undervote. The ONLY truly transparent way to conduct an election of course

is by hand counting paper ballots- period. No source code anywhere in the process period.

[Skidmore]

7. Freakin' Buchanan family makin' trouble again.

What is it with these people and elections?

[Doctor_J]

8. Good luck suing

The courts at every level are packed with hard-core right-wingers. Eventually the suit will make it to a baatch of them and be kicked out.

But the publicity will be nice. It would be good to take down Jeb "papa Doc" a little bit.

[stepnw1f]

9. This May be Verrry Bad for the GOP

if vote tampering is revealed. Go for it....

[senseandsensibility]

10. Is Buchanan the incumbent?

I read the whole article and couldn't find who, if either of them, is the incumbent.

[NMDemDist2]

11. wasn't this for Katherine Harris' seat? n/t

[senseandsensibility]

12. It very well could be

I have no idea. I'm just an ignorant west coaster.:) Does anyone know for sure?

[Lochloosa]

14. It was Katherine Harris' seat. N/T

[Patsy Stone]

15. Yes

It was for Harris' seat, there was no incumbent.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. Bingo...

eom

[ChiciB1]

16. Sure Was... And I Was Involved With The Recount In the Beginning

It's pretty much a farce, the machines have no paper trail, but we did get that on the ballot to vote on and it passed overwhelmingly.

I just got an email from a friend of mine that was written by someone with WSJ, I think.

I'll go back and post some of it here. Coffey says they are going to sue and they SHOULD! This is just too weird!

[greeneyedboy]

17. donate to fladems.com for the legal battle, on their site or through actblue

https://secure.fladems.com/page/contribute/cd13recount

http://www.actblue.com/page/recount

[In Truth We Trust]

18. K&R Hand Counted Paper Ballots NOW!

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. Since the SOE in Sarasota County

can not confirm the vote counts for this election, since there are no votes to count, there is no way to decern the will of the people.

A special election should be called, with paper ballots.

[Sancho]

22. Sounds like what happened to me in 2004!

One reason I started an interest in DU and posting here is that my wife and I voted in Pinellas Florida in 2004 and watched a vote for democrat Castor turn magically into a vote for Martinez on the touch screen. My wife argued until they removed the machine, but as we left they rebooted it and a young techie (not a poll worker) was putting the machine back...and we watched multiple local races go to democratic candidates while a single senate or representative ended up going republican by a small margin....

The repeated pattern is clear. Some number of machines or precincts are hacked for some races. I'm really pretty PO'd that we've had this since 2000 and it's still a problem. It seems that exit poll data and observers are not able to "prove" what is happening, but the Jennings race is absolutely typical.

[Nimrod2005]

23. k

[tkmorris]

25. K? nt