Florida's 13th congressional district

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Florida's 13th congressional district encompasses all of Sarasota, DeSoto, and Hardee County, and most of Manatee County, except for a small northern coastal portion in District 11. It also includes a small section of Charlotte County. It is currently represented by Republican Vern Buchanan.

[edit] 2006 Election Controversy

In the 2006 election, election officials certified Republican businessman Vern Buchanan as the winner of the race over Democratic candidate, banker Christine Jennings by 369 votes. Buchanan was declared the winner after a mandatory recount and analysis of alleged voting machine errors in the race. The primary controversy in this race is that over 18,000 ballots, roughly 1 in 6, cast in Sarasota County apparently did not register a vote for this race, far higher than the usual number of "undervotes." Sarasota County voted for Jennings by a 6 point margin. Jennings has not conceded the race, and is pursuing administrative and legal challenges to the result, including filing an appeal for an investigation of the election with the House Administration Committee.^[1]

[edit] Weblinks

August 2006 Memo from Elections Systems and Software warning Florida Supervisors of Elections of a response time issue on their iVotronics touchscreen voting systems
Sarasota: Could a Bug Have Lost Votes? (Professor Ed Felten, The Freedom to Tinker Blog, February 27, 2006)
State Audit of Sarasota Voting System Flawed, Incomplete (Christine Jennings Campaign, February 23, 2007)
Software Review and Security Analysis of the ES&S iVotronic 8.0.1.2 Voting Machine Firmware, Final Report. (Florida Department of State, February, 2007)
Affidavit by Clare Ward-Jenkins, poll worker in Precinct 14, Sarasota County ([http://www.voteroversight.org VoterOversight.org, January 19, 2007)
Analysis: Ballots favored Dems Sarasota's 'undervotes' were examined in 5 state races. (The Orlando Sentinel, November 22, 2006)
Buchanan declared winner; rival Jennings sues (The Miami Herald, November 21, 2006)
Sarasota County Electronic Ballot Screenshots (Posted on The BradBlog, November 20, 2006)

[edit] Sources

^ http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/12/the_cqpolitics_interview_chris_1.html The CQPolitics Interview: Christine Jennings (December 6, 2006)

Florida's congressional districts
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