Congress Report on District 13 Race

File this under you got to be kidding me department.

A bipartisan task force said Friday that it had found no evidence of voting machine malfunctions in a disputed 2006 Florida congressional election.

The panel agreed that U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, who has less than a year remaining in his term, can stay in Congress. He had been seated by the Democratic-controlled House while it probed the election.

The task force was formed after Buchanan's Democratic opponent, Christine Jennings, challenged the validity of the results because more than 18,000 ballots did not indicate a selected candidate in the 13th Congressional District race.

The panel concluded that the undervotes were caused either by voters who intentionally did not vote for a congressional candidate or were

MIT Professor Charles Stewart's study found the odds were 5 million to one that 18,000 did not register a vote in the Congressional race.

Somewhere Brad Friedman's head is exploding right now.

Task Force to Meet on District 13

There is movement by Congress to investigate the District 13 election mess.

Just got a message from the spokesman for Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas, announcing the next meeting of the 13th Congressional Task Force in Washington is set for next week.

That comes just a day after they said they would wait to respect Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., who died Sunday after a bout with cancer. She was the chairwoman of the House Administration committee, which created the task force Gonzalez is leading. Millender-McDonald's funeral is set for Monday.

This isn't going to change the outcome. Vern Buchanan will keep the seat. Christine Jennings will have a good shot if she runs against him. (Which I'm sure she will) What the investigation needs to do is find the numerous mistakes that were made and document them in a detailed report.

Sarasota County was a perfect storm of fuck-ups. There was Kathy Dent's incompetence, bad ballot design and Election Systems & Software voting machine problems. Absolutely everything went wrong. To say the huge undervote was just people turned off by nasty politics is utter nonsense and should be treated as such.

Latest Dumb Idea From Florida Senate

This is the most stupid idea to come out of Florida politics in quite sometime.

A Florida lawmaker wants voters to have a guaranteed alternative to all the candidates on future ballots: "I Choose Not to Vote."

State Sen. Michael Bennett, R-Bradenton, has introduced a bill that would require every contest on a ballot to include that as an option.

Bennett introduced the bill in the wake of the controversial District 13 congressional race, where more than 18,000 ballots were cast in Sarasota County with no candidate selected. The large number of "undervotes" prompted claims of voting machine malfunction, and Democrat Christine Jennings challenged her 369-vote loss to Republican Vern Buchanan. A U.S. House of Representatives task force is investigating the election.

There is no evidence that the undervote was caused by voter apathy. There are ugly political races across the country. Those races did not produce an 18,000 undervote.

Election Systems & Software knew their voting machines were having problems.

"It has come to our attention after a number of inquiries...that some of your screens are exhibiting slow response times...We have determined that the delayed response time is a result of a smoothing filter that was added...In some cases, the time lapse on these consistent reads is beyond the normal time a voter would expect."

ES&S handled the District 13 controversy by not disclosing their problems and put out a misleading press release.

"ES&S was not present during the election, so it would be inappropriate to speculate on the situation," spokeswoman Jill Freidman-Wilson said. "However, we have been in contact with the Supervisor of Elections who has emphasized that the voting equipment functioned well.

"The touch screen system used in Sarasota County provides unlimited opportunity for a voter to make and change selections before a ballot is cast. Therefore, according to the Supervisor of Elections, undervotes were a result of an intentional choice not to make a selection in the congressional race or unintentional omission of a selection."

There is ample evidence the machines did not work properly. There is none that 18,000 voters decided not to vote in a Congressional race. Bennett's proposal is pure wingnuttery and unneeded. Voters don't have to vote in every race on the ballot.

House Administration Committee To Form Task Force On District 13

I hope this story is true.

The Buzz has learned that the U.S. House Administration Committee has formed a three-person task force to look into the disputed Sarasota congressional race.

An official announcement has not been made yet, but it seems that last week's news about a possible problem with the touchscreen machines may have led Committee Chairman Juanita Millender-McDonald to act.

The task force is made up of two Democrats, Reps. Charles Gonzalez of Texas and Zoe Lofgren of California, and one Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California. Gonzalez will serve as chairman.

Contested elections are part of Committee on House Administration's oversight responsibilities. Christine Jennings is contesting the results and has accused election officials of a cover up. Jennings' people point to a letter Kathy Dent received about problems with Election Systems & Software sent about voting machine problems. Jennings did not receive this letter and other documents.