So there is a potential huge undercount of 17,000 votes and folks should just forget about it? You'd be playing the same tune if the winner was the democrat?

Hey Hugh, when you find an example of a GOP candidate suing to cherry-pick the one county that she won, and ignore the undercount of the FOUR counties that she lost - then let us know.

Looks like an average of 3000 or more votes in each of the other FOUR counties were in the same situation (i.e. no vote for House race) - and of course I do not know what the population totals are per county. The article mentioned a certain "rate" - but left that undefined. There might be even MORE than 12,000 'undercounted' votes from the GOP counties in this district.

Sometimes people don't vote in a given race - especially this year, and especially THIS House seat. To dream a conspiracy that this ONE county, where the Dem managed a 53-47 margin somehow magically counted the votes in the other races, but dropped several thousand (knowing of course how tight the race would be) in this House race, looks to have no legal merit. And as the loser naturally she wants a new race - what does she have to lose, and now she can campaign the district would be better off with her, since she would be representing the new majority party in the House.

Sure, that's fair.

In case you did not notice, a LOT of Republicans were mad this year at their party in the House and Senate - but that does not mean they would not want to vote for governor and the other races (in a state like Florida)

How about this.

We look at ALL the so-called undercounts, in all counties in this GOP-leaning district - and we look at who the vote for governor was. If the governor vote was for the GOP, we give that ballot to Buchanan, if the Dem, we give it to Jennings.

But I doubt your gal would go for that. Better to sue over a cherry-picked district.

Pathetic.

Steve:

You did well up till your little diatribe there at the end. Why so many of you righties need to get pissy and self-righteous so much is beyond me.

As for the intelligent part of your post, I agree with all of it. There is obviously some anomaly there....maybe it was folks not voting for that race. Maybe it wasn't. All I'm saying is find out. No one should be deprived of their vote, democrat or republican. I have no idea what the problem was, if there was one. Just find out about all the undercounts.

My 'diatribe' as you called it was to point out a ridiculously unfair notion of 'voter intent' (with the governor idea) - and to point out that your candidate is NOT interested in truth, but in suing her way to a new election (and hopefully victory since her presence in the new majority would be more helpful to her district now)

I believe you started the challenge by assuming the GOP would be yelling if the shoe were on the other foot. So I simply asked you for ONE example of such a suit. Give me an instance when a Republican, like this Democrat (or Gore before her) sought only the one or two districts favorable for her - under the spirit of 'every vote should count', while ignoring the same, exact issue in districts or precincts NOT favorable to them.

Since you started with a potshot against the GOP, how about a constructive example of just how exactly to 'find out about the undercounts' - because that is NOT what your candidate is seeking.

Steve_in_Corona: You forgot that you are arguing with dim's so full of hate is has turned to insanity in thousands of cases. Look at the 04 election, they had to have special counselors for a lot of people suffering from PEST. I suggest we treat all PEST (all dim's) with rat poison.

This election has been so much fun I don't know if I can stand two years of comedy.

Cry when the lose and cry louder when they win. If that isn't insanity we need a new definition in Websters.

I have yet to hear the first complaint from the republican side and they lost. Ain't that a hoot. Are all dim's operating on the 3 YO level?

First of all, there were underVOTES, not "undercounts."

What this means is that some voters did not vote for a particular race. This happens in almost every precinct in every election. The national or statewide races draw the most voters, and some of them simply don't vote for the races for lower offices.

I advocate following the law. Florida sequesters all voting machines until the challenge period is over. Then, they may be examined to see if there is any mechanical reason for a higher ratio of undervotes in one county than another.

I don't know how Florida law works if some defect is found. However it provides for handling the situation is fine with me.

What is NOT fine with me is a judge making up some "solution" not in the law, and imposing it.

It remains entirely possible the House itself will decide who to seat in this election. In that case, expect the Democrat to get the seat without regard to vote counts OR Florida law.

I still don't get your spew Steve. I think my point is simple. If you want to toss the right wing horeshit Hannity/Limbaugh talking points, go toss them to someone else. You want to feel superior because you're a republican, enjoy. But you certainly are a pissy one.

Jim - I agree with your last post in its entirety. I don't want any court to "impose" a result. Not the Supreme Court nor a Florida court. All I want is the people's result. And I stand corrected about under-vote not undercount.

And anyone who thinks a GOP candidate would not want an anomaly like this checked for correctness is delusional or a liar. Now remember,, before you spew self-righteousness ,Steve I didn't call for a court to overturn anything

Given the use of negative ads. it's a surprise there isn;t more blank balloting of house races in elections where two popular locals were running for Governor (Crist and Davis).

Sarasota County is the largest county in the 13th District , so it's bound to have the most undervotes. The point is, if the election covered the whole district, so should the recount.

Given Crist beat Davis, using that race as a voter intent guidepost won;t help Jennings. She obviosuly tried to keep Crist voters from picking Buchanan, and alomost succeeded

Steve, proof of your thesis in from CT 2, where Rob Simmons conceded down 91 votes. Since then, more errors were found. The margin is now 83. He did not "unconcede" ....although there's evidence hundreds of college kids voted who were not legal residents of the district.

Now remember,, before you spew self-righteousness ,Steve I didn't call for a court to overturn anything
------------------------------
What's that line in Princess Bride about looking up words because I don't think you know what they mean?

My last post on this topic. Hugh, will you go on record in opposition to the ATTEMPTED means, by lawsuit, by the Democrat, to overthrow the election and get another one. THAT was the subject of the initial post by Jim. The fact that she is suing at all.

The post that you were first to jump in on with a snark.

I see instead of finding evidence to support your point (that Republicans would do the same thing) you result in the ad hominen, so I am done.

Steve:

You must get your pseudo cross-examination question/statement technique from Hannity. He does the same silly shit.

Of course I am against anyone, court or not, "overthrowing" (sic) an election. You sound like this is a banana republic by the way with that ridiculous phrase.

What I'm for is counting the votes that were cast. You for that too? Sounds like you're not. Sad.

83 VOTES!!! I would unconcede if I were Simmons unitl the college kid issue is resolved. On the Florida issue, my wife never votes for everything on the ballot and neither do I. Most of the time it is judicial elections I skip over. Two different issues here, one is fraud (to vote when not eligible to) and the other is the alleged undercount which is legitimate.

LorenU:

But remember in the minds of Kossacks (you can spot them by their wanton use of profanity when not necessary), Dems never cheat.

Looking at the results in Sarasota County (Precinct 13) we find that for representative it was:
Buchanan - 58,632
Jennings - 65,487

For Governor:
Crist - 76,198
Jennings - 60,214

So, yes there was some undervoting in comparing Governor to representative, but by looking at the numbers, it would appear that Buchanan was undervoted, not Jennings. She may have won the precinct by 53-47, but the republican governor won by 56-44. Therefore, should we assume that the 12,000 undervote be split along the same line as the governor's race? Of course not! And as mentioned earlier, you'd better check out the other precincts. Although in Manatee County, the undervote was only about 3,000 (it size is 30% smaller than Sarasota's, and the other counties only had about 18,000 voters.)

The Buchanan undervote among R's was a natural result of running a negative campaign to cause R's voting for Crist to skip the House ballot....but close only counts in horseshoes...Jennings's problem was she didn;t induce more "undervoting".

BTW, Buchanan lost Sarasota County in the primary so R's there not checking his box is not completely unfathomable

I support any candidate using every option of recounts and challenges available under the law, including going to court if officials apply the law wrongly. I support courts taking corrective action in such cases, within the limits provided by law.

In the matter of federal elections, however, judges are not empowered to create their own remedies for violations of law or some generalized concept thereof, nor to read into the law requirements which are not there.

I do object to the use of anecdotal evidence to undermine the integrity of election results. For instance, the reported "undervotes" in one county is an essentially meaningless statistic. There is a natural tendency to undervote lesser offices and if, as suggested above, both Crist and Davis are from the general area, it would be expected the rate of undervotes might be even higher. Given the relative totals for the Governor's race, any suggestion that undervotes might represent uncounted votes for Jennings is fantastic.