Paul Kiel is going to be bringing us an update later on the battle brewing in Florida 13th district — that’s the Jennings-Buchanan race. But, looking for a silver lining in this election day travesty, it seems to me that we can be happy that there is at last a clear-cut case — at least as clear-cut as we’re likely ever going to get — where electronic voting machines delivered the race to the candidate who didn’t get the most votes. I’m not saying it’s the first time it’s happened. But it does seem like the first time where the available facts leave no real room for reasonable doubt. The electronic voting machines — through error or malfeasance, though there seems to be no suggestion of the latter in this case — gave the election to the Republican candidate, Buchanan, whereas the voters gave it to the Democrat, Jennings. And because of how they work there’s no way to do the kind of ‘recount’ one does with old-fashioned paper-record ballots.
So the issue is out there, clear and stark. Now we decide whether we care enough to do anything about it.
