The fight rages on in Florida’s 13th District, where Democrats say malfunctioning electronic voting machines may have cost them the election.
The latest developments: to lead the audit team, the state of Florida has tapped a die-hard Republican who vowed during the 2000 recount controversy to “never be a passive political participant again.” However, Republican candidate Vern Buchanan has won court approval to delay the start of the audit. Democrats say it’s a partisan stalling tactic.
The controversy in the district revolves around an unusually high rate of “undervotes” in Sarasota County. Thirteen percent of voters — about 18,000 people — voted in the county but did not select a candidate in the congressional race. In other counties, that total “undervote” rate was approximately 11 percentage points lower*.
Democrat Christine Jennings says that undervote rate is a clear sign that something went wrong — and she says she has voters’ testimonies to prove it. Republicans (and state officials) doubt that theory, arguing that voters might have just been turned off by a nasty race.
The computer programmer chosen by the state of Florida to lead the audit is Alec Yasinsac, a computer scientist at Florida State University. In 2000, Yasinsac stood on the steps of the Florida Supreme Court wearing a T-shirt reading “Bush Won,” and told a local paper that ”I’ll never be a passive political participant again.” He made good on that, working on Republican Tom Gallagher’s failed bid for governor this year.
As if that wasn’t enough, he’s also an ardent advocate for the accuracy of electronic voting machines — which he’ll be auditing for accuracy.
However, the audit has screeched to a halt in order for Vern Buchanan’s campaign to find a voting expert. A judge presiding over the dispute wants the Republicans to have their own expert, as the Democrats have their own, so they can jointly watchdog the state audit. “It’s got to be the easiest thing in the world to find an expert,” Jennings’ lawyer complained, but the Buchanan campaign has yet to identify one.
The judge gave them until Monday at 5 p.m. to find one. Until then, the audit can’t move forward. The Jennings camp accused Buchanan of “dragging his feet” in order to prolong the process.
The recount will be certified Monday, upon completion of the manual recount — after which the Jennings campaign is expected to sue to contest the election’s results. Then the battle really gets going.
*Update: Due to a typo, the earlier version of this piece stated that the “undervote” was 11% in other counties. It should have read that the undervote was 11 percentage points lower – around 2.5%.
