Republican to take seat in House amid touch-screen dispute

St. Petersburg Times ^ | Dec 29, 2006 | JONI JAMES

[jdm]

TALLAHASSEE — Congressional hopeful Christine Jennings' drive for a new election in Southwest Florida suffered two blows Friday when Congress announced it would seat her opponent and a state judge denied her request to inspect vote-counting software in Sarasota County.

But Jennings, a Democrat who has fought relentlessly since official results showed her losing by just 369 votes to Republican Vern Buchanan in last month's election, was unfazed.

She pledged to appeal the judge's ruling and said she supported the seating of Buchanan "temporarily," in part because congressional leaders promised to remove him if she prevails in her call for a new election. "It is important to protect the voters, and this step will ensure they are not left without a voice in Congress," Jennings said.

At issue is the extraordinary number of voters in Sarasota County, 18,400, who did not record a vote in the highly contested race to replace U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, though they did vote for other races.

Jennings and her allies, including a group of voters who have joined her lawsuit, have argued that the undervotes, as they are called, represent a malfunction by the electronic voting machines used by Sarasota County, the iVotronic machine by Election Systems & Software.

In a motion seeking evidence for their case, they sought access to the so-called source code of the machines.

But ES&S, along with state elections officials, challenged that request, contending the source code amounted to a proprietary trade secret protected under state law. They have argued that the undervote was attributable to a poorly designed ballot that put two races on a single screen of the voting machines.

[jdm]

Jennings and her allies, including a group of voters who have joined her lawsuit, have argued that the undervotes, as they are called, represent a malfunction by the electronic voting machines used by Sarasota County, the iVotronic machine by Election Systems & Software.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

[cardinal4]

On another thread one of her staffers said they wanted to see the source code for the machines..

[Lurker]

On another thread one of her staffers said they wanted to see the source code for the machines

IIRC the judge specifically denied that request.

L

[cardinal4]

Good, that code is proprietary..

[ZULU]

At least you have to give the Dems credit - they keep fighting and never roll over and play dead - even when in the minority.

Republicans on the other hand, can't seem to fight even when they have the majority.

[Mr_Moonlight]

What the hell is wrong with Florida voting all of a sudden since year 2000?

/perplexed off

[HiTech RedNeck]

It's a dangerous precedent. In the past with old mechanical voting machines, anybody was allowed to look at the innards. All voting software should be required to be open source.

[CaliGangsta]

Jennings wouldn't know the source code from the sports section of the New York times. This whole thing is a joke, 19,000 people choose not to vote in a race and they call it an under vote.

[Omega Man II]

Better yet, go back to the paper ballot.

Although if I recall correctly, it was the Dem whining (because their voters are too stupid to use traditional punch card ballots) that led to E-Voting switch.

[rawcatslyentist]

Now why would anyone actually want duly elected officials to actually be able to legislate from their duly elected office?

You might be a ned wreck, make that a Red drek!

The Dems'Communist party has been pulling this garbage since 2000! They actually got away with it in the Wash state gov race. Will the Rs grow Bs? or are the Rs in league with the Ds? Tune in next election for the never ending propoganda of the ENEMEDIAs war on America!

[kenth]

Yep. By calling it an undervote, they create the idea that votes were not counted when in fact they have. People chose not to vote, or chose not to study their ballot. Either case, the vote is done and no third party should be allowed to change the outcome by pretending to read minds.

[neb52]

I miss my scantron voting card.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Better yet, go back to the paper ballot.

There's nothing wrong with electronic voting. The discs are read-only memory. They cannot be duplicated or manipulated.

This is just more Dim shenanigans when they don't get their way, that's all.

[ThreePuttinDude]

I can tell you, I'm one of those under votes.
I didn't like Buchanan, a stupid issue on my part
I was a Tramm Hudson supporter, I thought that by
not voting I would send a message. I guess I learned
the hard way that you can't send a message that way.

Since 2000 Jennings has not been taken serious down here.
Jan Schneider has beaten her out quite handily up till now.
Kathrine Harris had this district locked until she decided
to run for the senate, (bad move on her part)

I, personally know of 10 people that would love to have a
re-vote. This time Vern would get the votes he should have
gotten the first time.

[Clara Lou]

18,400, who did not record a vote in the highly contested race to replace U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, though they did vote for other races.
I can't believe that anyone believes in "undervotes." I "undervote" in any election if there are races for which I have no preference or for which I lack information about the candidates.

[sirchtruth]

Republicans on the other hand, can't seem to fight even when they have the
majority.

Well, they better learn how to fight real fast unless they want to continue for
decades to come to remain in the minority. Another 40 years?

I said with the looney left and the way the DBM/dems were acting, these people
wouldn't win back power for decades. I even the called the DBM/dems,
THE NEW STUPID PARTY.

Well, I was definately proven wrong, and THE REAL STUPID PARTY is now
a minority again because they squandered the power the people gave them to
really effect change in Government. You can't start by instituting the Contract With America
and in little over a decade try to govern opposite it's principles and precepts
...dumbasses!! You can not negotiate with people in your own party who
side more against you, than for you...Moderates and Rinos.

You better take a clue conservative republicans because this country is now in the
hands of people who will stop at NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, to retain
the power you so foolishly squandered!

[Dustbunny]

Even if he only won by a margin of one vote, he still won and is entitled to take his seat.

[Hardastarboard]

All voting software should be required to be open source.

Kind of hard to understand how something as seemingly simple as a vote counting program should be a "competitive advantage". Maybe I'm missing something.

[sphinx]

Better yet, go back to the paper ballot.

Paper ballots were abandoned in most places because they made it too easy to cheat. Which is exactly why the dems are agitating to bring them back.

[ZULU]

That's why I'm supporting Duncan Hunter for President - or Newt Gingrich or possibly Rice or Kyl.

It sickens me to see the way Republicans are fawning over an egomaniacal left-wing big city northeastern liberal like JulieAnnie, or a loose cannon Judas like McCain or a waffling liberal like Romney.

If any of those three get nominated, I will not vote for them. I'll break with over a quarter of a century of supporting and voting for Republicans on the state and local levels and start working for an independent third party.

People like them are worse than Hillery Clinton because they steal from the American public the opportunity to make a real choice between two forms of governance, a liberal, big-government, loose constructionist based society in which the Courts and bureaucrats run every aspect of their private lives and interests and fund it with tax dollars sucked from their pockets while kow-towing to the U.N. and the Euroweenies - and a form of governance based on the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the principles of the Founding Fathers, Courts which act with constitutional restraint and leaders who reject cultural and societal equivalence and will who protect and defend our borders and nation against foreign invaders and Islamic social insurgents.

We thought we had made a choice between these two philosophies in 2000 and 2004. But the distinction has become ever more blurred the longer the present administration remains in power.