Sarasota Voters File Lawsuit for Re-vote in Congressional Race

[eleny]

Voter Action email that just arrived:

"November 22, 2006
Dear Friends,

Voters from Sarasota County announced today that they are filing suit in state court in Tallahassee asking for a revote in Florida’s 13th congressional district. The suit alleges that thousands of citizens were disenfranchised when massive undervotes plagued the tight congressional race between Democrat Christine Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan. In a high-profile battle over former Rep. Katherine Harris' seat, the result was decided by 363 votes, yet over 18,000 ballots cast on Sarasota County's e-voting machines registered no vote in the race, an exceptional anomaly in the State.
The lawsuit is being filed by a group of Sarasota County voters, both Republican and Democratic. The voters are represented by election advocacy groups, including Voter Action, People For the American Way Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida.

“Election officials have shown remarkable disregard for the ability of voters to actually cast a ballot,” said Ralph Neas, President of People For the American Way Foundation. “Casting a vote is one of our most fundamental rights, and that right was violated for thousands of Sarasota County voters. At this point holding a new election is the only appropriate option.” Neas also called for statewide election reform, saying, “Florida can no longer afford to certify election results that no one trusts.”

ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon noted: "For years, Gov. Jeb Bush’s administration, including various Secretaries of State, has dismissed reports of problems with electronic voting machines and resisted mandating audits and other methods of ensuring that electronic voting machines are capable of performing a genuine re-count. We even had to go to court to overturn an Administrative Rule issued by the Secretary of State banning recounts in DRE Counties. Now we have mass disenfranchisement and a crisis in voter confidence in the integrity of the elections. It is likely that the faulty machines, not the voters, decided this election.”

Voter Action, a national nonpartisan advocacy group focused on election integrity has been leading legal efforts nationally to address the problems with electronic voting. “The problems in Sarasota are not unique,” said election law attorney Lowell Finley, co-director of the organization. “Across the country we have seen how these systems lose large numbers of votes, switch voters’ selections on the screen, cause high undervote rates, add votes or even count votes backwards. Our democracy is too important to continue using unreliable and untrustworthy voting equipment. The people of Sarasota are standing up for their most fundamental right no matter their political affiliation. This is about protecting democracy.”

The suit is being filed under provisions of Florida law that permit voters to contest an election based on misconduct by election officials or on evidence that legal votes were rejected in sufficient numbers to place in doubt the outcome of the election.

The voters’ lawsuit cites misconduct of election officials, including the failure of Sarasota Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent to adequately investigate, identify or report equipment malfunctions, software malfunctions or ballot layout errors in the ES&S iVotronic touch screen voting machines, even after she received numerous complaints about the machines from voters and pollworkers during the two week period of early voting.

The lawsuit also alleges that the iVotronic voting machines were improperly certified by the Florida Secretary of State in disregard of early warnings concerning the reliability and trustworthiness of e-voting systems made by ES&S systems.

On Monday, the Florida Elections Canvassing Commission certified Vern Buchanan as the winner of the Congressional District 13 race by 363 votes, despite the fact that electronic ballots cast by more than 18,000 people in Sarasota County showed no vote for either candidate in a high profile congressional race. This is an undervote rate of more than 16%, compared to an undervote rate of 2.5% in the paper absentee ballots and 1% in the U.S. Senate race on the same electronic ballot.

At a public hearing hosted last Thursday by PFAWF, ACLU of Florida, Voter Action, Common Cause, and Fair Vote Florida, numerous voters in Sarasota County reported that when the summary screen appeared on the ES&S voting machines they were assigned to use, their vote had not been recorded. Some voters were able to go back and record a vote, but others believe they were never given a meaningful opportunity to cast a vote in that race.

The lawsuit notes that absentee ballots, which are cast on paper instead of the computerized touch screen voting machine, did not reflect a similar lack of votes in the congressional race in Sarasota, and that other counties in the same congressional district—which used different voting equipment—did not experience the same massive undercount in the congressional race.

“The voters of the 13th Congressional District deserve to know for sure who they elected,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. “Voters should not have to take the word of vendors and election officials when serious problems emerge that call into question the accuracy of the results. This suit is designed to help voters find out what really happened."

[krispos42]

1. K&R! n/t

[eleny]

2. Thanks for the Recommend!

[philb]

3. Some of the voter irregularity reports that came in to the EIRS hotline these groups provide

EIRS (Election incident Report System) calls by voters to EP hotline- Sarasota & Manatee Counties- including RoboCalls

http://eirs.cs.net:8080/EIRS_WEB/Reporting/displayUSReport.do


139 Polling Place Problem Sarasota Florida Yes LOST VOTES: 5 people cast votes on ES&S touch screen machines for the Democratic Congressional candidate but when the summary page/audit came up, that vote did not appear at all; after complaining they were eventually able to verify their votes for the candidate; however this has happened to at least 5 individuals all of whom were voting for the Democratic candidate ES&S touch screens were blank complained; they eventually saw a vote after the audit;

269 Polling Place Problem Sarasota Florida No happened to other people too; no vote was recorded at first; had to repeat vote until machine said that was recorded;

1947 Polling Place Problem Sarasota Florida Yes At Precinct 141, the names of two candidates, Christine Jennings and Vern Buchanon, were not appearing on the screens until the summary page, so voters were not given the opportunity to vote for either candidate.

3432 Other Problem Sarasota Florida Incarnation Church, Parish Hall No Voted for CHristine Jennings on electronic system. Around 7:20 this morning. When she was asked (by machine) to check her choices, there was a denotation next to that race saying "you didn't pick anybody for this race". Smaller print than anything else on page, but in red. She called poll worker and they went through choices again. With assistance of attendance, 2nd time the vote was picked up.

2652 Other Problem Sarasota Florida No Voter tried to vote straight Democratic ticket. Machine incorrectly changed one of his votes to the Republican candidate.

1750 Other Problem Sarasota Florida Yes The polling place lookup website for Sarasota county is not working. http://srqelections.com/ Then click on look-up polling place. Was working this morning, isn't now.

5651 Polling Place Problem Sarasota Florida No Congressional race did not appear on ballot until second time around.

4808 Polling Place Problem Manatee Florida Methodist Church No Voted for one candadate (jennings) did not show up on summary screen. Went back tried again and was able to vote for her.
3179 Polling Place Problem Manatee Florida No only one machine was working at whitfield presbyterian church at 7045 n. tamiami trail in sarasota.

1467 Polling Place Problem Manatee Florida Robo Calls No voting machine did not provide an opportunity to vote for a U.S congressman. At the end, the machine recognized the voter had not voted for Congressman, and routed back.

1248 Voter Intimidation Problem Manatee Florida Yes After hours voicemail message: Son (Phillip Blaustein) in Paris, FL (Manatee Co) (Dist 13) getting calls last 2 days at all hours, incl middle of night. Seem be from Christine Jennings, Democ candidate. If listen to end of message, call identified as from RNC. People agitated to point of voting against Jennings.

768 Voter Intimidation Problem Manatee Florida No Got 40-50 phone messages in past week purporting to be from Christine Jennings and after 4 minutes it is paid for by RNC

[Spiffarino]

4. Thanks for posting (what appears to be) the entire lettter

I've been waiting a long time to hear the details of what PFAW and the other groups are doing about this travesty in Sarasota. The MSM has given very little detail.

Do you know what the general consensus is in the 13th? Election reform activists are ballistic, but are the "regular" folks up in arms as well?

Edit: K&R

[eleny]

10. I don't live in Florida, so I don't know what's going on in the grass roots

[Canuckistanian]

5. A big K&R

This one just MIGHT get some attention.

Thanks for posting this, eleny.

[Stevepol]

6. Maybe this is the lawsuit that will finally break the camel's back.

[Nimrod2005]

7. ....

[Morgana LaFey]

8. This strikes me as an extremely important lawsuit

I certainly hope it succeeds.

[eleny]

9. Voter Action has been helpful here in Colorado, too

I posted their notices in the Colorado forum.