Partisan tone growing
JEREMY WALLACE
www.heraldtribune.com
Nov 17, 2006
As the tedious recount in the disputed congressional race begins to look more fruitless, a partisan undertone is growing in the election between Democrat Christine Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan.
Day four of the official recount produced little change in the overall vote tally that shows Buchanan winning the 13th Congressional District by about 400 votes.
The high point of today's continued recount -- and perhaps Jennings last chance to gain momentum before the filing of any lawsuits -- may be the late afternoon canvassing of overseas and military ballots, although there are not likely enough of them to swing the election in her favor.
The manual recount as a whole is almost over. The results of that count must be reported to the state Division of Elections by Saturday at 5 p.m. The election is expected to be certified by Monday, after which both campaigns will have 10 days to challenge.
The recount, however it turns out, won't address the key concern voting rights groups have been pressing all week: the surprisingly high undervote in the race, which some have blamed on touch-screen machines. More than 18,000 people, or nearly 13 percent of those who cast ballots in Sarasota County, didn't vote for either candidate, considered an undervote.
In comparison, less than 3 percent of absentee voters -- who used paper ballots instead of touch-screens -- skipped the race. In surrounding counties, the undervote rate in the race was less than 5 percent.
Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent said the recount won't show if voters had trouble registering their vote and had to cycle back on the touch-screen voting machines -- something voters have complained they had to do to make sure their vote registered.
Meanwhile, political forces in both major parties didn't wait for the recount results to turn up the partisan heat.
National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Reynolds issued a statement on Thursday calling on Jennings to concede the race.
"In every counting of the votes in the 13th District, Vern Buchanan has been declared the winner," said Reynolds, who last year bought a house in southern Manatee County.
Buchanan's campaign also released a statement on Thursday in which Buchanan supporters called on Jennings to concede.
Jennings' campaign staff questioned the timing of comments from Reynolds and the Buchanan camp because the recount is still ongoing.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also weighed in as it continued a fundraising drive to help Jennings pay legal bills.
Spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod said the DCCC would maintain a presence in the recount until every voter who intended to vote for Jennings has their vote counted.
Democrats in Congress are treating Jennings like a full member. On Thursday, Jennings was given a full vote in the leadership elections, which she used to vote for Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, to be the majority leader.
Regardless of how the recount finishes, the Florida Legislature will almost certainly be dealing with the fallout next spring.
State Sen. Lisa Carlton, the incoming Senate president pro-tem, said she expects the Legislature to debate whether to make all counties use the same voting systems. Carlton, an Osprey Republican, said the question will be how much local control over the elections will supervisors of elections be willing to give up.
Currently 15 Florida counties use touch-screen voting systems, while the rest use optical scanning equipment.
State Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said the state should also look at adding a line for each race in which voters could choose "none of the above." Bennett said that would help determine when people are trying to intentionally skip a race.
Dent talked about the same idea this week during the recount. Dent is the vice-president of the Florida State Supervisors of Elections Association, which would be key to lobbying for changes to the voting system.
In the meantime, the players in the recount will be closely watching military and overseas ballots that must arrive today to meet the deadline for inclusion in the election.
Sarasota County sent out 546 such ballots. Dent could not say how many of those ballots have arrived but have not yet been counted.
Overseas and military voters tend to favor Republicans, however, so the ballots were not expected to help Jennings close the gap. But the Jennings camp held out hope Thursday that discontent with the war in Iraq might help those votes break her way.
"There may be some differences from traditionally how military ballots ... may fall," said Jennings spokeswoman Kathy Vermazen.
The Secretary of State's office said it would start an audit of voting machines in Sarasota County sometime after the final vote is certified Monday.
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