NEW YORK, Dec. 30, 2006
Setback In Fla. Democrat's Election Fight
Court Rules Against Christine Jennings' Call For New Vote, Appeal Coming
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Christine Jennings, center, posed for a group photo with incoming members of the House of Representatives, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006. Jennings and her opponent, Republican Vern Buchanan, both attended freshman orientation. (AP)
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Special Report Election Results Find out who won and by how much in the 2006 midterm elections.
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Photo Essay Winners And Losers Images of some of the victors and vanquished from Election Day 2006.
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Blog Primary Source Armen Keteyian and his investigative team keep you informed daily on their blog.
A Florida Democrat plans to appeal a court ruling stifling her hopes for a new election in the nation's only unresolved congressional race, while Democrats in charge of the next Congress vow to examine the race and could possibly order a revote if the courts don't.
Christine Jennings contends faulty electronic voting machines like the ones used by 40-percent of American voters cost her the seat representing south Florida in the House of Representatives. But she lost a key court ruling on Friday, when a state judge denied experts tapped by her campaign access to the machines.
Florida has certified Republican Vern Buchanan as the winner over Jennings by 369 votes out of 238,000 counted and recounted in the state's 13th congressional district, which encompasses five counties south of Tampa.
State Judge William Gary rejected motions by Jennings and groups representing voters to probe the ES&S touch screen machines and their software used in the most populous county, Sarasota, where if results are to be believed, one in every seven voters chose to skip the race.
"Plaintiffs have presented no evidence to demonstrate," Judge Gary wrote in his order, "the results not valid."
Jennings argues proof of machine malfunction lies in the 18,000 electronic ballots, or 15-percent of those recorded by machines on Nov. 7 and in two weeks of early voting, showing no preference in the House race. By comparison, only two-and-half-percent of Sarasota voters using paper absentee ballots skipped the House race. In two other counties using the same ES&S machines, fewer than five-percent recorded no House vote.
"The testimony of plaintiffs' experts was nothing more than conjecture and not supported by credible evidence," Judge Gary said, after holding two days of hearings in Tallahassee. Gary sided with ES&S, who argued its software, or source code, was a trade secret.
"It's shocking that there is more concern for protecting a company's profits rather than protecting our right to vote," Jennings said in a written statement following the ruling. "The secrecy and question marks surrounding electronic voting is creating a real crisis in confidence among America's voters, and the only way to resolve this is by conducting a thorough review by outside experts."
Meanwhile in Washington, Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) announced that on Jan. 4, the first day of the new Congress, he will call for an "inquiry," a symbolic act putting the House on record recognizing the challenge to Buchanan's election. Jennings has filed a notice of contest with the House Administration Committee, which will begin its own independent investigation, backed by subpoena power, next week.
"The evidence will show the certification did not reflect the will of the voters and a revote is necessary," Holt told reporters. "No one in a seat like this should get too comfortable."
Holt said if Buchanan is eventually removed from his seat, which the House has the power to do and has done at least three times in the past 70 years, that would be "based on the evidence, not on a partisan power play."
Holt plans to reintroduce legislation mandating electronic voting machines to generate a voter verifiable paper trail as backup. Florida is one of 15 states using machines that don't. A majority of the last Congress co-sponsored his bill, but it never came to the floor.
"In too many elections, federal and local in recent years, there have been results that can't be believed and can't be confirmed," Holt said.
The House investigation and court appeals over Florida's race could drag on for months.
"I know that I won, and I know that a re-vote is very, very important, so that every person can have their vote count," Jennings told CBS News. Since she won 53-percent of the Sarasota vote, if a normal percentage of ballots had no preference for the House race – say 3,000 instead of 18,000 – Jennings would have easily beaten Buchanan.
"I do see us as the test case for the United States," Jennings continued. "This one is so in-your-face, that no one can deny that there's a problem."
Only 1,800 Sarasota voters skipped the governor's race, the first listed on the electronic ballot, and only 1,600 skipped the senate race, which immediately followed the House race.
Jennings said, "I will fight as long as I need to, until we have an answer as to what happened to our votes."
Kendall Coffey, Jennings's attorney, who represented Al Gore in the disputed 2000 presidential election, told CBS News, "As a Floridian, it's very frustrating. Instead of 'never again,' it's 'here we go again,'"
Coffey derided the state's "rubber stamp recount" as a re-tally that failed to capture voter intent.
"The only debate is how much the malfunction was machine error. A 15-percent non-vote in a hotly contested congressional race basically hasn't happened before in modern times," Coffey said.
Phil Hirschkorn
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 42 CommentsPosted by bluestardad at 03:20 PM : Jan 01, 2007
I'm beginning to believe that missamerica4 is the same.
If a system can be manipulated to your advantage, it can and eventually will be manipulated to your detriment unless your little tricks come to light first (think plea bargain.)
Your gal pal lost, boy. Time to move on.
Tough.
The message to Pelosi and Howie Screamer was - while we're unhappy with President Bush and the Republicans we also DO NOT want you tampering with our National Security, Moddycuddlying ILLEGALS, and raising our taxes. You did that with Jimmeeee the coward and bigot, and with Slick the Pervert. You don't do it now.
Either govern with "integrity" as you promise, or you will soon be back out on your *****. As for you, Randy, and your boyfriend, the apt-named Fascist, grow up.
Without implying any culpability, "Trust us" is just not enough. Trust but Verify. Trade secrets can't be allowed to prevent verifying election results. Accidental or otherwise, there too many ways to compromise the process. Trade secrets means secret, unverifiable vote counting.
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Well said!!!
ES&S machines have both lost and created votes. ES&S forced Hawaii's first recount. In Dallas the ES&S system ignored 12% or 41,000 votes. In Florida, Miami-Dade lost 8.2% of votes in 31 pcnts, 103,222 or 22% votes were lost for a time.
Errors in either direction are unacceptable. Voting systems require transparency. It's an interesting aside, but brothers Bob and Todd Urosevich's companies, ES&S & Diebold record and tabulate 80% of this country's votes. Without implying any culpability, "Trust us" is just not enough. Trust but Verify. Trade secrets can't be allowed to prevent verifying election results. Accidental or otherwise, there too many ways to compromise the process. Trade secrets means secret, unverifiable vote counting.
A combination touch screen-optical scan system can be fast and provide verifiability. The touch screen prints a scanable ballot, the voter checks it and deposits it to be scanned and tabulated. It improves upon manually marked optical scan ballots by consistently marked choices, with no X's, checks nor partially filled circles. Manual recounts of random pcnts can statistically verify results, and a full manual recount can always be performed. Paper ballots' reliability and computer tabulations' speed.
Don't forget the CEO of Diebold (maker of many of the computerized voting machines) said he would, "deliver the presidency to G.W. Bush" and he won - hmmmmm.... wonder how that happened?
These machies are as easily manipulated as the service technicians that work on them. It only takes one "improper service procedure" to throw the election to the GOP.
As long as the total amount of voters in the precint matches there is NO WAY TO AUDIT AN ELECTRONIC VOTE. Your vote counts only when "they" want it to count.
In your case......it's true.
Posted by missAmerica4 at 11:20 AM : Dec 31, 2006
Real good one there. Ouch. What's next? "I know you are but what am I?" Or the ever classic "I'm rubber and you're glue?"
Growing up was never a priority for you was it?
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Quote: Holt plans to reintroduce legislation mandating electronic voting machines to generate a voter verifiable paper trail as backup.
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This is what needs to be done to protect the validity of any election no matter "who" wins or loses...
Posted by john97068 at 01:49 PM : Dec 31, 2006
Makes you wonder if ES&S and Diebold didn't under estimate the tide of angry voter turnout in Novemger doesn't it?
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