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Politics

State to eye Sarasota recount

The tiny margin in the congressional race to replace Katherine Harris triggers a state law's force.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 10, 2006

SARASOTA - Florida Secretary of State Sue Cobb sent a team here Thursday to observe an expected recount in a tight election race to replace Rep. Katherine Harris.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Christine Jennings' lawyer, Kendall Coffey, called for an independent investigation into what he described as "disenfranchisement on a massive scale in Sarasota County."

Jennings trailed her opponent by 373 votes in Tuesday's count.

Cobb said that at County Elections Supervisor Kathy Dent's request, her team will audit procedures in the county office and examine the touch screen machines that recorded more than 18,000 ballots with selections in other races but not in the 13th Congressional District.

Republican Vern Buchanan has declared victory in the race with less than a 0.2 percent lead over Jennings. His staff is satisfied with the vote count, but welcomes the audit, spokeswoman Sally Tibbetts said. "We want to ensure every vote is counted as well."

Florida law requires a machine recount if the difference between the top candidates is less than 0.5 percent. If the machine tallies find a margin of less than 0.25 percent, a manual recount is done.

A manual recount for touch screens involves going back over the images of the electronic ballots where the machine didn't register a choice. But state rules essentially say that if the machine doesn't show that a voter chose a candidate, the voter is assumed to have meant to skip the race. It would be tough to prove otherwise.

Final results in the race are due Sunday. On Monday, a canvassing commission is expected to order a recount to begin Wednesday. Results must be certified by Nov. 20.

[Last modified November 10, 2006, 05:34:10]