Could Florida's 13th District See a New Election Due to Voting Issues?

[Skyhunter]

Lawsuits have been filed by a candidate, and voters, to re conduct the election in the 13th district of Florida because of 18,000 under votes (15%). This bears watching.

Citing statistical and eyewitness evidence of significant machine malfunctions sufficient to call into doubt the result of the election for Florida Congressional District 13, the Christine Jennings campaign today officially contested the election in Circuit Court. The complaint specifically requests the judge to order a new election “to ensure that the will of the people of the Thirteenth District is respected, and to restore the confidence of the electorate, which has been badly fractured by this machine-induced debacle.”

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2061&Itemid=113

Voters from Sarasota County announced today that they are filing suit in state court in Tallahassee asking for a revote in Florida’s 13th congressional district. The suit alleges that thousands of citizens were disenfranchised when massive undervotes plagued the tight congressional race between Democrat Christine Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan. In a high-profile battle over former Rep. Katherine Harris' seat, the result was decided by 363 votes, yet over 18,000 ballots cast on Sarasota County's e-voting machines registered no vote in the race, an exceptional anomaly in the State.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2066&Itemid=113

Here is a list of election problems around the country.

All 231 of them.


http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp

 

[Astronuc]

15% is way too high, and I would be rather upset myself if I had made an effort to vote only to find out that a machine screwed up and my vote didn't register.

It is not enough simply to go through the process of voting - the vote must be registered.

This kind of problem is really unacceptable and it would seem those who are responsible for the function of this process do not care enough.

Lack of integrity will undermine any political or social system.

 

[Rach3]

18,000 under votes (15%)

Voting instructions: The polling officer will roll a die. If you land a '6', your ballot will be torn up. Better luck next time!

I mean really - how can people tolerate such an abysmal system? 15% of votes lost? In the 21st century? In a first-world superpower?

I wonder how many of those 363 deciding votes were multiple-votes cast by technically ept voters using anyone of the numerous backdoors.

 

[Gokul43201]

13th district of Florida

Katherine Harris' district? How unexpected!

 

[Astronuc]

Voting instructions: The polling officer will roll a die. If you land a '6', your ballot will be torn up. Better luck next time!

I mean really - how can people tolerate such an abysmal system? 15% of votes lost? In the 21st century? In a first-world superpower?

I wonder how many of those 363 deciding votes were multiple-votes cast by technically ept voters using anyone of the numerous backdoors.

Do I detect some cynicism or perhaps a tad bit dissatisfaction?

 

[Skyhunter]

After an analysis of the ballots the Orlando Sentinel has found that the ballots in question heavily favored Dem's.

The analysis of the so-called "undervotes" examined the races for U.S. Senate, governor, attorney general, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner.

The results showed that the undervoted ballots skewed Democratic in all of those races, even in the three races in which the county as a whole went Republican.

In the governor's race, for example, Republican Charlie Crist won handily in Sarasota, easily beating Democrat Jim Davis. But on the undervoted ballots, Davis finished ahead by almost 7 percentage points.

In the agriculture commissioner's race, Republican Charles Bronson beat Copeland by a double-digit margin among all voters. But on the undervoted ballots, Copeland won by about 3 percentage points.

Some questions remain

The analysis does not -- and cannot -- reveal why no congressional choice was recorded on the ballots. It also cannot determine which candidate any single voter might have selected had he or she made a choice.

But the strong performance of other Democrats indicates Jennings would have found a sizable number of supporters within the group.

"If votes were actually lost," Dill said, "it appears those votes would have favored the Democrat."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/elections/orl-mvote2206nov22,0,1009612.story?page=2&coll=orl-home-headlines

I believe that the most important domestic issue facing this country is the need for an electoral process that re-instills confidence in the democratic process.

 

[Skyhunter]

Security Of Electronic Voting Is Condemned

As if we didn't already know this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001637.html

Paperless electronic voting machines used throughout the Washington region and much of the country "cannot be made secure," according to draft recommendations issued this week by a federal agency that advises the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Guess what kind of machines were used in Florida's 13th district. No paper trail = no recount. That is why they are asking for a new election.

 

[Daverz]

What, no wingnuts are going to weigh in here? Lemme give it a try:

<wingnut>
Hah! off corse teh undervotes favered teh democraps, dumbocrat voters r too stoopid to work the voting machiens.
</wingnut>