Another Stolen Election In Florida - KKKatherine Harris' Fl-13

Submitted by CactusPat on November 10, 2006 - 4:24pm.

Yes, there's another stolen election in Florida, KKKatherine Harris' old seat, FL-13..... seems 18,000 voters (13%) in Sarasota County declined to vote for their new congress-critter...

Dist. 13 voting analysis shows broad problem
A review of Sarasota County voting results shows that in almost every precinct a high percentage of voters didn't cast ballots in the hotly contested 13th Congressional District, a trend that likely affected the outcome of the race. Democrat Christine Jennings lost to Republican Vern Buchanan by 368 votes, making it the second closest congressional race in the country. More than 18,000 voters who showed up at the polls voted in other races but not the Buchanan-Jennings race.

That means nearly 13 percent of voters did not vote for either candidate... -- a massive undercount compared with other counties, including Manatee, which reported a 2 percent undervote.

If the missing votes had broken for Jennings by the same percentage as the counted votes in Sarasota County, the Democrat would have won the race by about 600 votes instead of losing by 368, according to a Herald-Tribune review. Even if the undervote had been 8 percent -- more than three times what it was in Manatee -- Jennings would have won by one vote.... (read the whole article)

The news is all over the blogosphere and has broken into the corporatist media. Latest news via Muckraker, SoE Dent is asking for a state audit, even though the Sec. of State has previously refused to investigate...

Dent asks state to audit election
Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent has asked the Florida Department of State to audit Tuesday's election after the recounts are completed. In the 13th Congressional District, Democrat Christine Jennings lost to Republican Vern Buchanan by 368 votes, making it the second closest Congressional race in the country. More than 18,000 voters who showed up at the polls voted in other races but not the Buchanan-Jennings race. "Because of the hullabaloo and the focus on this race, I just think it's a good idea to have this audit," Dent said. "They would look at everything ... soup to nuts." Dent is spending the morning planning the logistics of the recount, expected to occur Monday. She made a request to the Secretary of State, who is sending workers down to observe and help with the recount.

We also now have Congressional staffers on hand to oversee the scheduled Monday recount, an effort that is an exercise in futility since there aren't any ballots to recount from the Diebold touch-screen electronic voting machines. This one's headed to a court fight...

U.S. House staffers arrive for 13th District recount
Staff from the U.S. House of Representatives committee that oversees election disputes visited the site Friday where the 13th Congressional District race will be recounted. Janelle Hu for the Democratic party and David Kavanaugh for the Republican party, staff members of the Committee on House Administration, who plan to be there for the recount on Monday. On Friday, they inspected the touchscreen voting machines with Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent.

The staffers asked questions about the security of the machines and other voting equipment and how voters were instructed on using the machines. They tried out the touchscreen machines in Dent’s office, finding out what the machine did in all sorts of senarios, such as when someone undervoted or wanted to correct their vote. Dent also showed them how the Christine Jennings-Vern Buchanan race looked on every ballot type used in the election.

According to Muckraker, the new Democratic majority in the US House could step in, too...

House could end up in the 13th District
There was talk of mandatory recounts and possible court challenges Wednesday following Vern Buchanan's narrow victory in the 13th Congressional District race, but the ultimate arbiter in the dispute could be House-Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat-controlled U.S. House. While Buchanan declared victory by 368 votes, Democrat Christine Jennings refused to concede defeat.

"Sarasota voters have been victimized by not having their vote count," Jennings said Wednesday, vowing that her campaign would "not rest until every vote is counted."

But recounts involving touch-screen systems, which lack a paper trail, are usually inconclusive, so this case could be headed for the courts, said Chris Sautter, a Democratic recount expert. It would be "extraordinarily rare" for a court to order a new election even if the Jennings camp makes a convincing case that enough votes weren't counted to make a difference in the outcome, Sautter said.

But a strong court case could pave the way for the incoming Democratic House to step in, since the U.S. Constitution makes the House the final arbiter in House races, he said. Congress has gotten involved twice in tight races, both involving Democrats being seated over Republican protests.

"We're been watching this closely in Sarasota," said Lowell Finley, co-director and legal director for Voter Action, a national group formed in 2005 to challenge cases of voter fraud caused by electronic voting machines. "The results are extremely irregular and the fact that a large number of votes don't seem to be counted in just one race on these electronic machines is a very suspicious circumstance. We don't think the official results are accurate by any means."... (full article)

I know exactly what happened

Submitted by dinamic on November 10, 2006 - 4:37pm.

The machines were programmed so that the congressional race didn't come up. I had to go all the way to the end where it offers a chance to view all the races and how you voted, then go to the congressional race from there to vote in that race. Who do they think they are kidding 18,000 people intentionally didn't vote for congressperson?! It was hidden on the ballot that is why they didn't vote.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross." ~ Sinclair Lewis

In a time of deception telling the truth is a revolutionary act. ~ George Orwell

Some coincidence, eh, Di?

Submitted by CactusPat on November 10, 2006 - 5:14pm.

Looking through the press reports, Dent was aware of the "problem" ahead of time but didn't fix...

...But prior to the election, Dent had sent notices to her poll workers to warn voters that the District 13 race was easy to miss as they scrolled through their touch-screens to vote....

Easy to miss

Submitted by dinamic on November 11, 2006 - 12:10am.

Easy to miss? How about Hidden? 18,000 missing votes? Come on. BTW no one said a word at my precinct. Yes, Pat, what a coincidence.

Katherine is my nightmare, but how did they look in the mirror after they used her and then dumped her like a bad habit? That alone tells us a lot about what kind of people they are.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross." ~ Sinclair Lewis

In a time of deception telling the truth is a revolutionary act. ~ George Orwell

Di, what a surprise!! (NOT)

Submitted by tseving on November 11, 2006 - 11:46am.

I've been waiting for evidence of this to show up, and in time we should find much more. Remember Roves "the math"? I strongly suspect that "the math" was to what extent the GOP needed to cook the machines in key races nationwide to assure victory. I also suspect that Rove's error was miscalculating that recipe. Nobody has made much of an issue of it about it so far. Democrats are overjoyed at having both the House and Senate. Republican leaders don't want the truth to come out.

- Surviving Bush one day at a time.
politicsplus.blogspot.com

WE NEED OUR LAWYERS TO GET IN THIS!

Submitted by truthseeker on November 10, 2006 - 4:49pm.

If we FAIL to investigate and prosecute these voting crimes, they will continue -- guaranteed!! I know the Dems has massive amounts of lawyers throughout the US on Election Day, surely one of them has to be working on this one, no????

Jebthro wades in with his half pence...

Submitted by CactusPat on November 10, 2006 - 5:36pm.

Gov. Bush says undervotes worth investigating

BRADENTON. -- Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday the unusually high number of voters who didn't choose a candidate in a congressional race in Sarasota County was worth investigating, and said the state has "the law in place to do it right."

"This is obviously something we need to look into, and very quickly," Bush said as state elections officials prepared to oversee an expected recount next week in the 13th District race between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings.......

Common Cause has also charged into the fray, calling for a re-vote...

Florida e-voting: 18,000 'missing' votes in close race

IDG News Service 11/10/06
Government watchdog group Common Cause has called for an investigation of electronic voting machines used in Florida's 13th congressional district because of 18,000 missing votes.....

... Nearly 13 percent of voters in Sarasota County picked candidates in other races but did not choose a candidate in the House race. More than 35 callers to Common Cause's voter hotline left messages Tuesday saying the e-voting machines appeared to leave off a vote for Jennings on their summary screens, said Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause Florida. In neighboring Manatee County, just 2 percent of voters did not cast a ballot in the congressional race.

Some voters caught the omission and were able to go back and vote again for Jennings, but others may have missed the problem, Wilcox said.

"Sarasota County election officials must conduct a revote," Wilcox said. "The machines should be impounded, audited and tested to determine if voters were unable to cast a ballot and why. Sarasota County voters deserve an explanation."...

Listen to half-hour podcast from the scene

Submitted by Sarasota News Events on November 10, 2006 - 6:17pm.

Democrat Christine Jennings' and Republican Vern Buchanan's race for Katherine Harris' congressional seat is not over. The state has ordered a recount of the ballots. Buchanan leads by only 368 votes.

Meanwhile the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent is scrambling to figure out why 18,000 people registered no preference in the race.

Was it bad ballot design causing people to overlook the contest?
Were voters so fed-up they couldn't vote for either candidate?
Was there a touch-screen voting glitch?
Did someone hack the system?

There are more questions than answers, but one thing's for sure, this is one hell of a story. Listen to to all the major players here: http://www.clickcaster.com/sarasotanewsevents

As Of Today

Submitted by dinamic on November 11, 2006 - 12:10am.

In the Florida Jennings vs Buchannan race:

A simple recount won’t work in this case, and the only thing that courts can do is order a re-vote. But we don’t need to wait for the courts to maybe do the right thing – Congress has the power to do so itself. The Constitution gives each house of Congress the ultimate power to decide who can be seated in their chamber. Based on the overwhelming evidence that the voters of the 13th District did not intend to elect Vern Buchanan, Congress can refuse to seat him and instead seat Christine Jennings. Alternatively, they can declare the seat vacant and call for a special election. As Election Law Professor Richard Hasen wrote in Roll Call, “why should voters be victims of the design incompetence of election administrators? The fair thing to do – even if it is not legally compelled – is to hold a new election where everyone in the district gets to vote.”

Meanwhile, Moveon.org has set up an online petition urging Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress to call for a new special election in the 13th Congressional District. As Pelosi’s constituents, we here in San Francisco are in a unique position to help apply pressure to make Congress do the right thing.

The new Democratic majority is paranoid about coming off as too partisan, but now is not the time to hedge. Are we going to let Katherine Harris’ legacy live on in Congress – or are we going to set a new precedent from Tom DeLay’s “culture of corruption”? In January 2005, Senator Barbara Boxer rose up to contest Ohio’s electoral votes for George W. Bush after she was embarrassed to see so many Democrats refuse to contest the 2000 election. After having been burned by six years of the Bush-Cheney Administration, Democrats in Congress should proudly set a new tone and refuse to tolerate further electoral chicanery.
http://tinyurl.com/yf99nv

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross." ~ Sinclair Lewis

In a time of deception telling the truth is a revolutionary act. ~ George Orwell

Remember Calif 47th in 1996

Submitted by dkhorse on December 13, 2006 - 5:09pm.

The Republicians would not seat Rep Sanchez without an investigation. From Wikipedia: Following the narrow defeat, Dornan alleged that Sanchez's winning margin was provided by a large number of illegal immigrants. A thirteen-month House of Representatives investigation ensued, during which Sanchez was not allowed to take her seat, or act on her elected position in any way. Dornan went so far as to question her own citizenship status[citation needed]. Eventually, Sanchez was able to take her seat.

Dkhorse, I sure do remember that

Submitted by kwahlf on December 13, 2006 - 10:42pm.

shameful circus Bob Dornan put on,
wasting our time and money with his
meritless charges.

On the upside, it was the beginning of
the end of Bob Dornan!

Good riddance.

Voter Fraud---I don't trust our system to have a fair vote!

Submitted by spiralspin on September 10, 2008 - 12:47am.

Is there any way to get a fair and honest election any more? This is really concerning me and I am afraid that we will not get a legitimate one this time either. How many examples of this have we had since 2000 at least?

How do I know that our ballots will be counted? Can we, as citizens, ask for the UN or some other group like the Human Rights Watch group come here to oversee the election? I do not believe, after all this election fraud, that this election will be any different!! Does anyone have the answer to having an impartial oversight?

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