U.S. House is final word on seat (Sarasota recount)

[DoYouEverWonder]

November 16, 2006

WASHINGTON - If a recount in Sarasota fails to award Democrat Christine Jennings a seat in Congress, she has a final recourse: The newly Democratic-controlled U.S. House.

A little-known provision in the U.S. Constitution gives the House the final decision on who sits in its chamber.

House staffers have already been dispatched to Sarasota to monitor the recounts, and both candidates in District 13 - Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan - say they are aware that a disputed election could be appealed to Washington.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida Democrat working with Jennings, said she hopes it wouldn't come to that, but she wouldn't rule out anything that would help determine if voters were disenfranchised.

"All options are on the table," she said. "We're going to explore any available option."

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/11/16/Worldandnation/US_House_is_final_wor.shtml


This could get interesting. I bet Tom Feeney will throw a hissy fit.

[Richard Steele]

1. With 20 thousand missing votes in the heavy DEM areas of the district...

...I have no problem with letting the HOUSE appoint
the candidate who would have won a VALID election.

Because this election was so obviously FUBAR'd in favor
of the Repub, any solution which provides JUSTICE is fine by me.

[Lasher]

2. Why not? Republicans were in a rush to swear Brian Bilbray in

And Bilbray had not even been certified the winner. Turnabout's fair play, I say go for it.

[krispos42]

3. Didn't this happen in California back in June?

Duke Cunningham's old district. Bilsbray or whoever won, but during the recount was flow to DC and sworn in before the vote could be certified. CA courts said that even if the Democrat won, they couldn't remove the Repub from the House because the House decided who gets in.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Yep

Pay back is a mother, isn't it?

[clichemoth]

5. But if the vote on this is in the lame-duck session...

Wouldn't that make it pretty likely that this is happening just to give the seat to Buchanan, a la the Bilbray situation? After all, they still have the majority now.

Please tell me that it's the 110th Congress that gets to decide this, not the 109th.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. The way the process works

It will probably take until the beginning of the new year, for Congress to even start the investigation before they can make a decision.

A recount of the touchscreen totals and optical scan absentee ballots was completed late Tuesday, giving Buchanan a 401-vote lead. A manual recount will begin today, and those results are expected to be certified by the state Monday.

Each candidate has 30 days from then to ask the House Administration Committee to investigate, which usually takes a few weeks to several months.

[rosesaylavee]

6. Hmmm. Too bad.

That's how Hastert did it last June with Cunningham's district.

[Kolesar]

8. The Dems "took" an Indiana district this way in the early nineties

The House voted to give the seat to the Democrat a half a year after the election. This was a point of contention when Newt Gingerich started his agitiation that led to the gops taking the majority in 1994. I put "took" in quotes, because only the gops looked at it as a taking. They are crybabies over *anything* that does not go their way.

[bullimiami]

9. if this falls to the next (d) house I would hope they would do all they can

to determine the will of the voters. if a valid count isnt possible because of corrupt voting machines then they should call for a revote on paper. im sure the r's would go along with it as an alternative to having the D awarded the seat.

i know this current house would just declare their candidate the winner, period. game over. they dont care about laws, fair play or democracy though. i expect more from the dems.