Florida's 'national model' for fair elections now under scrutiny
By PHIL DAVIS
Associated Press Writer
SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) -- Katherine Harris is staying out of the bitter fight over the election results in the race to fill her congressional seat.
But the contested race is likely to further cement her political legacy with election controversy. The same touch-screen voting machines Harris praised in 2001 as an end to Florida's embarrassing election problems are now under national scrutiny after recording an unusually high number of voters as skipping the race to replace her in Congress. :rofl:
The meltdown in Florida's 13th Congressional District is in many ways a microcosm of the 2000 Florida election fiasco that put George W. Bush in the White House.
A tight race. A confusing ballot. Allegations of massive voter disenfranchisement.
"These guys in Florida - embarrassingly - just keep getting it wrong," said Ted Selker, co-director of the CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project.
Harris and Gov. Jeb Bush touted electronic voting as the end of election woes in Florida, where hanging chads and other punch-card voting mishaps made the state a national joke in the 2000 election. Harris, then-Florida's secretary of state, was key in awarding a win to George Bush by a margin of only 537 votes. The Florida win gave Bush the presidency and made Harris a Republican star, but also created widespread distrust in the state's vote counting process.
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