Florida's 'national model' for fair elections now under scrutiny

[DoYouEverWonder]

Nov 23, 2006

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) -- Katherine Harris is staying out of the bitter fight over the election results in the race to fill her congressional seat.

But the contested race is likely to further cement her political legacy with election controversy. The same touch-screen voting machines Harris championed in 2001 as an end to Florida's embarrassing election problems are now under national scrutiny after recording an unusually high number of voters as skipping the race to replace her in Congress.

The meltdown in Florida's 13th Congressional District is in many ways a microcosm of the 2000 Florida election fiasco that put George W. Bush in the White House.

A tight race. A confusing ballot. Allegations of massive voter disenfranchisement.

<snip>

Harris and Gov. Jeb Bush touted electronic voting as the end of election woes in Florida, where hanging chads and other punch-card voting mishaps made the state a national joke in the 2000 election. Harris, then-Florida's secretary of state, was key in awarding a win to George Bush by a margin of only 537 votes. The Florida win gave Bush the presidency and made Harris a Republican star, but also created widespread distrust in the state's vote counting process.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_FLORIDA_RECOUNT_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=state.shtml


Maybe now that Katherine Harris has been put out to parture, we can put these machines out there with her?

[dipsydoodle]

1. Put her out to pasture ?

Thought you only did that with cows. On second thoughts...........:rofl:

[baldguy]

2. A "national model for fair elections" must begin with counting every vote accurately.

Anything short of that and the republic is lost.

[seafan]

3. Jeb: These machines give people a 2nd chance to make sure they didn't wanna have their vote counted.

No kidding, Jeb.

In recent weeks, Gov. Bush has made it clear he initially favored the optical scan system over touch-screen voting. But he also expressed confidence the touch-screen system is reliable.

"I am not concerned about the machines but I do think that the audit procedure that will start soon will identify what exactly happened," Gov. Bush said. "The fact is, these machines do give people a second chance to make sure that they didn't want to have their vote counted."

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061123/APN/611230525

You've bullied your way into the process with ES&S electronic voting machines that your former running mate, Sandra Mortham, lobbied for in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties to use, while you derided Democrats in those counties at the same time for their outcry against the unreliability of these machines.

Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday said that Florida's large urban counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward, lobbied for touch-screen machines even though his own task force in 2001 recommended optical scan machines. He noted that large counties are primarily Democratic, but didn't mention that his one-time running mate in 1994, Sandra Mortham, was a lobbyist for both ES&S and the Florida Association of Counties at the time.

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/nation/16021527.htm

And, after the 2000 debacle, Jeb and his former Secretary of State Glenda Hood conveniently made it illegal in Florida to recount any votes that have already been counted by a machine. Makes it easy to cover their tracks of theft for all future elections, doesn't it?


And on Election Night, 2000, little Jebbie was *on the phone* to cousin John Ellis at FOX News late into the evening, mysteriously followed by the network's fraudulent, *early call* for his brother's *win* over Al Gore....


So, Jeb, you are a major reason that our voting rights have been corrupted in this state.


Pack your bags, bro. It's time for you to check out.