This race in Katherine Harris's old district is this year's most egregious example of the need for election reform. It's very suspicious how so many votes just didn't show up -- 18,000+ votes didn't show up:
Elections officials began the tedious process Monday of recounting votes and investigating allegations of voter machine malfunctions in southwest Florida's 13th Congressional District, a race in which the Republican contender leads by a thin margin.Disappearing votes in America in the year 2006. How can that be acceptable? And, possibly a paper trail would show more clearly? Possibly?
Florida law requires a recount in all five counties in the district. But all eyes are on Sarasota County, where touch-screen voting machines recorded that 18,000 people - 13 percent of voters in the Nov. 7 election - did not cast a vote for either Republican Vern Buchanan or Democrat Christine Jennings. That rate was much higher than surrounding counties in the district.
"I do see some interesting things that are happening in regards to votes that seemed to have disappeared or people didn't vote," said Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, a member of the state Election Canvassing Commission that ordered the recount. "You don't know if they chose not to vote or whether they didn't, and possibly a paper trail would show more clearly."
