A Christmas Eve Update on the fight for FL-13's voters

[cal04]

Dear friends,

With the holidays approaching – and so much activity going on with the election contest – I wanted to provide you with an update.

This past week, MIT Professor Charles Stewart and Rice University Professor Dan Wallach presented evidence in court about widespread machine failure that suppressed thousands of votes and changed the outcome of this race. With nearly 40 percent of Americans using touch screen voting machines, an independent examination of these machines, as we’ve requested, is the only way to end the crisis in confidence about our voting system.

While fighting in Tallahassee for a thorough review of our voting system, I also took the step this Wednesday of filing a Notice of Contest with the U.S. House of Representatives. This allows the U.S. House to continue to monitor the legal proceedings in Florida while leaving open the possibility of a Congressional investigation if the Florida courts fail to provide the type of full investigation that will serve to restore voter confidence in the nation’s voting system.

I would also like to take this opportunity to reflect on the importance of our fight. As I have said many times over the past six weeks, this contest is not about Vern Buchanan or me. It’s not about Democrats, Republicans or Independents. It’s about restoring confidence in our Democracy, and ensuring that every American has the opportunity to vote in elections that are both fair and accurate.

Our vote is too precious not to fight for what’s right. On behalf of the voters of District 13, I will see this through and will provide the answers that Sarasota and the rest of the nation are forcefully demanding.

Thank you all for your support throughout this fight. And Happy Holidays to you and your families.

Sincerely,

Christine Jennings

_
P.S.-Hi, everyone. JR Lentini, Blogosphere Outreach guy for the Christine Jennings campaign, reporting live from my parents' house. Before I tuck in for the night and wait for Santa (though my wife assures me that there's no way I made the 'nice' list, my mother disagrees), I wanted to share this note from Christine. And, if anyone is interested in getting us presents, the best gift of all would be a letter to your Congressman or Congresswoman asking for justice for the voters of Sarasota County. (Barring that, there's always ActBlue.)

Happy Holidays to all,
JR
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/12/24/184652/71

[Morgana LaFey]

1. Good news. THanks. nt

[FogerRox]

2. Too late for me to rec, kick for Christine though.

[philb]

3. Evidence Jennings won in Sarasota Dist 13 with a fair count- stolen election

Evidence Jennings won in Sarasota Dist 13 with a fair count- stolen election
The following analysis shows that there is strong evidence the majority of voters in Dist 13 in Sartasota, Florida
favored the Democrat Jennings in the Congressional race, and if the votes had been counted fairly Jennings was the clear winner.

The Precinct data from the Supervisor of Elections Website, http://www.srqelections.com/results/gen2006pct.htm
was compiled for each precinct under the following conservative and reasonable assumptions:

1. an undervote due to voters who chose not to vote in the Congressional race of 2.5% in all precincts
2. undervotes in each precinct over 2.5% spread to Jennings and Buchanan in the same ratio as the Jennings/Buchanan votes in the precinct

Result: adds an additional net 1275 votes to Jennings total

Conservatively, Jennings would have won in a fair count by over 800 votes.


Its my understanding that from the audit, a large majority of the voters with undervotes were Democratic voting voters and
the results of doing a similar projection, or using the data for voters who voted in the race to do a regression predicting the
vote of a voter based on voting pattern in other races would have produced a result even more favorable to Jennings.


assumption 1 is reasonable and conservative based on undervotes for absentees in Sarasota and undervotes in all balloting in neighboring Manatee County in the District 13 race. (Manatee County uses opti-scan which is reliable and verifiable) likewise in other top level races in Sarasota and close Congressional races in Florida. See previous threads.

assumption 2 is also reasonable, and likely not as favorable to Jennings as the actual case based on most or all reports by voters
experiencing problems related to Jennings votes disappearing, and indications from the audit that most voters with undervotes were Democratic.