Vote Fraud Florida REMINDS: Dem TOP priorities are to RESTORE RULE OF LAW and US Constitution by INSURING VERIFIABLE elections, and INVESTIGATING
The ongoing Vote Recounting DEBACLE in FIVE Florida counties reminds that the Democrats FIRST order of business... before even choosing party leaders - is to ENSURE THE RULE OF LAW and the primacy of the US Constitution in American politics and jurisprudence. The fact that 13 states in America use voting machines WITH_PAPER_TRAILS, while the other 47 states do NOT use paper trails, indicates that 47 secretaries of state, governor's offices, and state legislatures are guilty of GROSS DERELICTION OF DUTY, if not criminal negligence, if not premeditated COMPLICITY with FRAUD, for NOT insisting that those states have VERIFIABLE, AUDITABLE, RECOUNTABLE vote totals.
This GROSSLY FLAWED voting system across the nation is ONLY there because Republican vote-machine companies and state legislators (& execuctive offices) practically WALLOWED in their ability to NOT provide verifiable, recountable machines and a secure voting process. (With, we are sure, some incompetence or negligence on the part of Democrats in some of those states as well.)
RESTORING THE HONESTY and ACCOUNTABILITY of the American voting process SHOULD BE PRIORITY ONE of the new congressional majorities.
============================
As 5 counties recount votes, candidate files legal petition
by Mark K. Matthews | Washington Bureau
Posted November 14, 2006
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-voteprobs1406nov14,0,7173615.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state
STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL RACE: In 3 other counties using the same ES&S touch-screen machines as Sarasota, an even higher percentage of ballots failed to show any vote cast in the race.
Election supervisors in five Florida counties began recounting votes Monday to confirm the winner in a razor-thin race for Congress -- with the most intense focus on Sarasota County and more than 18,000 disputed ballots there.
But as the review approached the end of its first day, lawyers for Democratic candidate Christine Jennings filed an emergency petition that could draw out the dispute for an indefinite period of time.
Jeffrey Liggio, an attorney for Jennings, said he does not trust the Sarasota County supervisor of elections, the state of Florida or even the sheriff's officials guarding the recount. He wants a completely independent review of the election that does not involve state or local government.
Last week, unofficial returns showed that Republican Vern Buchanan edged Jennings by 373 votes in the House race , triggering an automatic recount under state law because the difference was less than one-half of 1 percent.
For some reason, about 13 percent of all voters in Sarasota County did not cast ballots in that hotly contested race. This high number of "undervotes" dwarfs the 1 percent of Sarasota County voters who skipped races for the governor and U.S. Senate.
Voters immediately complained, and the statistical oddity sparked an audit by state officials, a review by Congress and led at least two groups -- Common Cause and the nonpartisan People for the American Way -- to demand that supervisors scrap the recount and hold another election.
"Clearly, votes were lost, and those voters deserve a chance to have their voices heard," said Ben Wilcox, executive director of Florida's branch of Common Cause.
Ron Labasky, an attorney for the top election official in Sarasota County, Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent, deflected calls for a re-vote, noting there was little precedent for that action. Meanwhile, both candidates were in Washington, D.C., attending an orientation for new members.
Jennings has not conceded, and the action filed by her campaign late Monday seeks to secure all voting machinery and data for possible further investigation beyond what state and local authorities are undertaking this week.
Sally Tibbetts, spokeswoman for Buchanan, said it was unfortunate that Jennings was trying to "litigate our victory."
One potential culprit for the high number of undervotes is the touch-screen voting machines used by Sarasota County. On Monday, state investigators began looking into whether a software glitch caused so many voters to miss the race.
To do that, investigators planned to extract an Election Day log from several machines that registered a large number of undervotes. Officials then plan to use the log to re-create Election Day by duplicating every button pressed by each voter in an effort to find an error.
Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for Florida's Department of State, said Monday that she doesn't expect Jennings' legal action to affect the audit or recount.
She also said there were no plans to examine similar problems with touch-screen voting machines in other counties, but she would not rule out such a review, either. In Sumter, Lee and Charlotte counties, there were undervotes between 18 percent and 22 percent for the state attorney general's race -- numbers described as "monstrous" by Rice University psychology professor Mike Byrne.
"Twenty percent undervoting is unbelievable," said Byrne, who heads the Computer-Human Interaction Laboratory at Rice. "When I heard that, I thought it was a mistake."
The counties with a high number of undervotes each used touch-screen machines manufactured by Election Systems and Software. A spokesman for the company said Monday that it was providing technical support for Sarasota County, adding that the ES&S equipment "worked well."
The congressional race was listed on the same screen as the governor's race, which dominated most of the page under the boldface heading "State." The word "State" also was highlighted in blue.
It also could be that the 13 percent undervote number in Sarasota was artificially low because it includes absentee paper ballots. Undervotes among those who used absentee paper ballots was 2.5 percent.
When only touch-screen ballots are considered, the percentage of undervotes in the Sarasota congressional contest rises to almost 15 percent.
It was under this cloud that officials in Sarasota County started their recount. At a warehouse normally reserved for traffic equipment, volunteers and observers checked vote tallies among stacks of black boxes with election results.
A machine recount of the House race is expected to be completed Wednesday.
Under this type of recount, counties with touch-screen machines are required to re-tabulate their figures from Election Day to ensure the numbers are correct. In the Buchanan-Jennings race, Sarasota and Charlotte counties used touch-screen machines. The other type of voting method in Florida is optical-scan ballots, in which voters mark their picks with pencil. For this recount, officials in Manatee, Hardee and DeSoto counties will re-run these ballots through a machine. A manual recount, if needed, would start later in the week.
Optical-scan machines allow election officials to physically examine the paper ballots that voters marked before putting them into the machine. Having such a paper record allows officials to check if any mistakes were made by voters.
The touch-screen machines used in Sarasota County have no such paper trail, so there is no way to show voter intent.
Jim Stratton of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Mark K. Matthews can be reached at mmatthews@orlandosentinel.com or 202-824-8222.
---------------------------------------
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VOTES: NOT CAST -- OR NOT COUNTED?
HOUSE DISTRICT 13 RACE: In Sarasota County, 13% of voters did not cast ballots or did not have them tallied.
This GROSSLY FLAWED voting system across the nation is ONLY there because Republican vote-machine companies and state legislators (& execuctive offices) practically WALLOWED in their ability to NOT provide verifiable, recountable machines and a secure voting process. (With, we are sure, some incompetence or negligence on the part of Democrats in some of those states as well.)
RESTORING THE HONESTY and ACCOUNTABILITY of the American voting process SHOULD BE PRIORITY ONE of the new congressional majorities.
============================
As 5 counties recount votes, candidate files legal petition
by Mark K. Matthews | Washington Bureau
Posted November 14, 2006
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-voteprobs1406nov14,0,7173615.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state
STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL RACE: In 3 other counties using the same ES&S touch-screen machines as Sarasota, an even higher percentage of ballots failed to show any vote cast in the race.
Election supervisors in five Florida counties began recounting votes Monday to confirm the winner in a razor-thin race for Congress -- with the most intense focus on Sarasota County and more than 18,000 disputed ballots there.
But as the review approached the end of its first day, lawyers for Democratic candidate Christine Jennings filed an emergency petition that could draw out the dispute for an indefinite period of time.
Jeffrey Liggio, an attorney for Jennings, said he does not trust the Sarasota County supervisor of elections, the state of Florida or even the sheriff's officials guarding the recount. He wants a completely independent review of the election that does not involve state or local government.
Last week, unofficial returns showed that Republican Vern Buchanan edged Jennings by 373 votes in the House race , triggering an automatic recount under state law because the difference was less than one-half of 1 percent.
For some reason, about 13 percent of all voters in Sarasota County did not cast ballots in that hotly contested race. This high number of "undervotes" dwarfs the 1 percent of Sarasota County voters who skipped races for the governor and U.S. Senate.
Voters immediately complained, and the statistical oddity sparked an audit by state officials, a review by Congress and led at least two groups -- Common Cause and the nonpartisan People for the American Way -- to demand that supervisors scrap the recount and hold another election.
"Clearly, votes were lost, and those voters deserve a chance to have their voices heard," said Ben Wilcox, executive director of Florida's branch of Common Cause.
Ron Labasky, an attorney for the top election official in Sarasota County, Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent, deflected calls for a re-vote, noting there was little precedent for that action. Meanwhile, both candidates were in Washington, D.C., attending an orientation for new members.
Jennings has not conceded, and the action filed by her campaign late Monday seeks to secure all voting machinery and data for possible further investigation beyond what state and local authorities are undertaking this week.
Sally Tibbetts, spokeswoman for Buchanan, said it was unfortunate that Jennings was trying to "litigate our victory."
One potential culprit for the high number of undervotes is the touch-screen voting machines used by Sarasota County. On Monday, state investigators began looking into whether a software glitch caused so many voters to miss the race.
To do that, investigators planned to extract an Election Day log from several machines that registered a large number of undervotes. Officials then plan to use the log to re-create Election Day by duplicating every button pressed by each voter in an effort to find an error.
Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for Florida's Department of State, said Monday that she doesn't expect Jennings' legal action to affect the audit or recount.
She also said there were no plans to examine similar problems with touch-screen voting machines in other counties, but she would not rule out such a review, either. In Sumter, Lee and Charlotte counties, there were undervotes between 18 percent and 22 percent for the state attorney general's race -- numbers described as "monstrous" by Rice University psychology professor Mike Byrne.
"Twenty percent undervoting is unbelievable," said Byrne, who heads the Computer-Human Interaction Laboratory at Rice. "When I heard that, I thought it was a mistake."
The counties with a high number of undervotes each used touch-screen machines manufactured by Election Systems and Software. A spokesman for the company said Monday that it was providing technical support for Sarasota County, adding that the ES&S equipment "worked well."
The congressional race was listed on the same screen as the governor's race, which dominated most of the page under the boldface heading "State." The word "State" also was highlighted in blue.
It also could be that the 13 percent undervote number in Sarasota was artificially low because it includes absentee paper ballots. Undervotes among those who used absentee paper ballots was 2.5 percent.
When only touch-screen ballots are considered, the percentage of undervotes in the Sarasota congressional contest rises to almost 15 percent.
It was under this cloud that officials in Sarasota County started their recount. At a warehouse normally reserved for traffic equipment, volunteers and observers checked vote tallies among stacks of black boxes with election results.
A machine recount of the House race is expected to be completed Wednesday.
Under this type of recount, counties with touch-screen machines are required to re-tabulate their figures from Election Day to ensure the numbers are correct. In the Buchanan-Jennings race, Sarasota and Charlotte counties used touch-screen machines. The other type of voting method in Florida is optical-scan ballots, in which voters mark their picks with pencil. For this recount, officials in Manatee, Hardee and DeSoto counties will re-run these ballots through a machine. A manual recount, if needed, would start later in the week.
Optical-scan machines allow election officials to physically examine the paper ballots that voters marked before putting them into the machine. Having such a paper record allows officials to check if any mistakes were made by voters.
The touch-screen machines used in Sarasota County have no such paper trail, so there is no way to show voter intent.
Jim Stratton of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Mark K. Matthews can be reached at mmatthews@orlandosentinel.com or 202-824-8222.
---------------------------------------
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Unclear ballot? Glitch? Maybe both, experts say
Nov 12, 2006
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-voterprobs1206nov12,0,6657404.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state
VOTES: NOT CAST -- OR NOT COUNTED?
HOUSE DISTRICT 13 RACE: In Sarasota County, 13% of voters did not cast ballots or did not have them tallied.
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