More Electronic Voting Shenanigans

The New York Times is reporting that Florida has had voting issues again.

Vern Buchanan, the Republican candidate, won the election by a mere 373 votes. But more than 13 percent (~18,000) of those who went to the polls Tuesday did not seem to vote in the Congressional race when they cast ballots - an unexplained discrepancy.

More than 100 voters have told the Jennings campaign (Democrat) that their votes for her did not show up on the summary screen at the end of the touch-screen voting process, and that they had to re-enter them.

Mike Lasche, a boat captain here, said that when he voted his vote for Ms. Jennings did not show up on the final review screen until he cast it a second time.

“If I had not checked carefully I would have gone on without ever thinking about it,” said Mr. Lasche, 50. “You have to wonder how many people it happened to and may not have even noticed it.”

While a recount is being sought, if the voting machine never even recorded the votes properly there is no way we will ever know who was supposed to win the Florida seat.

A preliminary review by The Herald-Tribune found that if Ms. 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.