From the invaluable TPM Muckraker:
Lawyers for Democratic House candidate Christine Jennings threw down the gauntlet yesterday, asking a state court to secure electronic voting machines and data used in the election.The move would preserve the equipment in Florida’s Sarasota County for scrutiny by Jennings’ legal team. A hearing on the suit is scheduled for this afternoon. [Update: The judge granted the Jennings campaign’s request to secure the voting machines today.]
It’s just the first step of what is likely to be a litigious aftermath to a close and ugly election (thanks in part to the NRCC’s rampant robo calling in the district). The state began a recount and audit of the election yesterday. Once the audit and second recount is completed and the results certified on November 20th, the Jennings campaign has ten days to contest the results of the election if they still show Jennings down. Before the recounting began, she was down 386 votes.
The fight will center around the district’s Sarasota County, where the electronic machines did not register a vote in the Congressional race for 18,000 voters (13%) – what’s called an “undervote.” That’s compared to only 2.53% of voters who did not vote in the race via absentee ballots.
A study by the local paper, The Herald Tribune, found that one in three of Sarasota election officials “had general complaints from voters about having trouble getting votes to record” on the electronic machines for the Congressional race. Since 53% of voters in Sarasota County picked Jennings over the Republican Vern Buchanan, those missed votes would likely have put Jennings in front.
Needless to say, this is a very serious matter. It’s also going to get very expensive, which is why we’ve added the special FL-13 recount fund to the Blue Majority ActBlue page. And this is not just a chance to add to our majority. For those of you who have expressed concerns about the integrity of electronic voting machines, this is an important showcase for that issue. If you want to help make sure that voting technology is scrutinized under a bright spotlight, then it’s time to back up words with deeds.
I just tossed in $100 earlier today. I urge you to please give as well. And there’s an extra bonus: This is none other than Katherine Harris’s old seat!
Aren’t these the same machines with no papertrail and completly impossible to find voter intention? (unlike say, the wonderful butterfly ballots)
I want Jennings to win here and the massive undervote is quite obvious that she won if these votes would have easily put her over the top, but the tampering we read about pre-election has ways to be completly untraceable, what is the strategy here?
— MrMacMan
but Wilson-R is still holding the lead.
Bummer.
Trauner had stated previously that he would probably not seek a recount in spite of the unexplained large undervote in Sheridan County.
Hooray!