Reply #2: PA: District 13 power players fight for fairness [View All]

[MelissaB]

District 13 power players fight for fairness

STACEY EIDSON
Herald Staff Writer
Politics makes strange bedfellows.

Two years ago, the same law firm that successfully represented President Bush in the 2000 presidential election litigation fought to secure the victory of state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, during a recount in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Attorneys Hayden Dempsey and Alexander Heckler were on the law team arguing against legal challenges of Bogdanoff's 12-vote margin of victory, insisting the election and recount were conducted in accordances with Florida law.

Last week in Sarasota County, those same two lawyers were on opposite sides in the recount and related legal wrangling in the 13th Congressional District race between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings. A final tally Friday showed Buchanan as the winner by 369 votes, out of more than 237,000 cast.

Representing Jennings, Heckler carefully kept an eye on the more than 18,300 undervotes in the race. He was hoping to discover unusual patterns in the ballot image reports that could build a case for possible malfunctions of the county's controversial touch-screen machines.


More: http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/nation/16049494.htm