In Sarasota County, Fla., 18,000 Votes Disappear

[JABBS]

Click here to read the entire story.

<snip>

State law requires machine recounts when the margin of victory is half a percentage point or less. But will a recount matter?

“If a vote is not recorded electronically inside the machine for whatever reason, there’s no way to go back and recover it,” Rebecca Mercuri, a computer scientist and an expert on voting technology in Hamilton, N.J., who has been critical of electronic voting, told the New York Times. “Chances are that nothing’s going to change, because those votes are gone.”

[MADem]

1. The MOXIE/SPUNK seat...how typical of Florida...

This shit is DISTURBING.......a whopping 13 percent of those who went to the polls Tuesday, did not seem to vote in the Congressional race when they cast ballots, a discrepancy that Kathy Dent, the county elections supervisor, said she could not explain.

The amazing total would seem to impact the outcome of the race, in which Republican Vern Buchanan leads Democrat Christine Jennings by 373 votes, out of 237,861 cast. A preliminary review by The Herald-Tribune of Sarasota found that if Jennings had won the same percentage of the 18,000 missing votes as she did among counted votes in Sarasota County, she would have won the race by about 600 votes instead of losing by 373.

[bullimiami]

2. the question is if the democrat was up by 375 votes and this happened

what would the ultra partisan governor, sos and legislature do about it?

i think they would nullify the election and mandate a revote but it has been demonstrated in the past that they dont give a flying hoot about fair elections as long as they win.

[JABBS]

4. good question

because it appears Florida plans to let the situation stand, with no recourse for the Democrat.

[bullimiami]

5. same question i asked in 2000. if bush was down by 300 instead of up

jeb and cruella would still be counting votes now and howling about fair elections and counting EVERY vote.

hypocritical bastards.
there should be federal felony charges for anyone who interferes with full and fair elections or uses their office in a partisan manner to do so.

[JABBS]

6. well, you'll note

that the same Republicans who screamed about Florida's recount law ("how many times are we going to have to count these votes," James Baker said, before a recount had occurred) were all initially suggesting George Allen should take advantage of the same rule in Virginia.

[texpatriot2004]

3. K & R for Transparent Democracy nm