Elections and Florida.

[Rex Kickass]

It looks like the undervote cost Christine Jennings a seat in the US Congress.

 

She lost by 339 votes.

 

18,000 people didn't cast a vote for Congress.

 

The votes that didn't get cast for Congress, did go heavily in her party's direction.

 

The voting machiines in this district have no paper trail.

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/...headlines-state

 

The group of nearly 18,000 voters that registered no choice in Sarasota's disputed congressional election solidly backed Democratic candidates in all five of Florida's statewide races, an Orlando Sentinel analysis of ballot data shows.

 

Among these voters, even the weakest Democrat -- agriculture-commissioner candidate Eric Copeland -- outpaced a much-better-known Republican incumbent by 551 votes.

 

he trend, which continues up the ticket to the race for governor and U.S. Senate, suggests that if votes were truly cast and lost -- as Democrat Christine Jennings maintains -- they were votes that likely cost her the congressional election.

 

Republican Vern Buchanan's 369-vote victory was certified by state officials Monday. His camp says that, although people may have skipped the race -- intentionally or not -- there is no evidence that votes went missing.

 

But the results of the Sentinel analysis, two experts said, warrant additional investigation.

...

 

About 15 percent of ballots cast on Sarasota's touch-screen machines registered no choice in the bitterly fought congressional race. That percentage was about six times greater than the undervote in the rest of the House district, which spreads into four other counties.

 

Since Election Day, dozens -- if not hundreds -- of voters have reported problems at the polls. Some say their vote for Jennings never registered after they touched her name. Others say they never saw the congressional race on the machine's screen.

 

The Jennings campaign argues that only a machine malfunction can account for the high number of undervotes in the congressional race.

 

Her experts claim that because Jennings won in Sarasota by a 52 percent-to-47 percent margin -- the only county she carried -- she would have picked up the bulk of any votes that were lost. Those votes, they say, would have been enough to defeat Buchanan.

[NorthSideSox72]

One of the big discussions that might come up in our mini-election here is what issues should be federal, state or local. To me, this is one we have wrong - standards for what voting machines have to be and contain should meet a federal standard. And that standard should include a paper trail with visual confirmation before continuing (like many now do).

[EvilMonkey]

", dozens -- if not hundreds -- of voters have reported problems at the polls." There is a pretty big difference between 36 and 200. or could it be that the writer wants to make it appear to be worse than it is by including the 'if not hundreds' part? Plus, beacuse she won one country, she should have won the other 3? "Her experts claim that because Jennings won in Sarasota by a 52 percent-to-47 percent margin -- the only county she carried -- she would have picked up the bulk of any votes that were lost." Earlier it said the district spread over 4 counties, with the supposed problem in one. So we have 36 vs 200, and 1 county vs 4. Looks like alot of 'ifs'.

[sox4lifeinPA]

dozens -- if not hundreds -- of voters have reported problems at the polls

 

did anyone follow these people home to figure out if perhaps their "problems" affected much more than their voting?

[Rex Kickass]

", dozens -- if not hundreds -- of voters have reported problems at the polls." There is a pretty big difference between 36 and 200. or could it be that the writer wants to make it appear to be worse than it is by including the 'if not hundreds' part? Plus, beacuse she won one country, she should have won the other 3? "Her experts claim that because Jennings won in Sarasota by a 52 percent-to-47 percent margin -- the only county she carried -- she would have picked up the bulk of any votes that were lost." Earlier it said the district spread over 4 counties, with the supposed problem in one. So we have 36 vs 200, and 1 county vs 4. Looks like alot of 'ifs'.

 

We also have 18,000 voters who didn't cast a ballot for Congress but did for Agricultural Commisioner in an urban area of Florida. It's possible that happened. I just doubt that would be very likely.

[Balta1701]

We also have 18,000 voters who didn't cast a ballot for Congress but did for Agricultural Commisioner in an urban area of Florida. It's possible that happened. I just doubt that would be very likely.

And beyond that, there was also a much, much higher percentage of undervotes on the electronic machines than there were on the absentee ballots from those same areas.

[Mplssoxfan]

Hey, the party of Bush and Harris stole the seat fair and square! Let's move on.

[Balta1701]

So, under circumstances that anyone with a working brain would say were a poor representation of actual voting, the State of Florida tried testing those machines yesterday. They tested them by setting them up in a line and having paid employees vote repeatedly on the machines.

 

Guess what they wound up with? With people who weren't voters, who were familiar with the machines, and who practiced on other machines (obviously a situation where the voting machines should be helped)...they still wound up with a bunch of miscounts and undervotes.