[Peace-discuss] Voting Irregularities Probed in Florida Congressional Race

[Karen Medina]

* Voting Irregularities Probed in Florida Congressional Race *

In Florida, election officials in Sarasota County have begun a review of touch-screen voting machines used in the recent election. They are testing the machines in order to determine why more than 18,000 ballots in the county registered NO VOTES in the highly contested Congressional race between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings.

The undercount was almost 15 % of ballots cast - far higher than in neighboring areas.

Buchanan, with 369 votes more than Jennings, was certified the winner last week. But the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections requested a state audit in response to voter complaints. A few days after the election, more
than 100 County residents told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that their votes were either not recorded or that they never saw the race listed on the ballot. The paper also wrote that if the missing votes had broken for Jennings by the same percentage as the counted votes in the county, - the
Democrat would have won the race by about 600 votes. Christine Jennings is contesting the results and the case is now in court. This seat also happens to be the old seat of Katherine Harris who, when she was Secretary of State, was a central figure in the 2000 Presidential re-count battle.

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/29/1438228