Opinion: Butt out, Dean; Buchanan won

The disappointment Christine Jennings feels is understandable. She lost the District 13 congressional race by a mere 369 votes only to learn that 18,000 Sarasota County ballots were cast with no choice in that contest. So the Democrat sued over the results and showed up for freshman orientation at the Capitol alongside Republican Vern Buchanan, the official winner. Now Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean has blundered into the controversy, calling on House Democrats who will control Congress next year to deny Buchanan his seat and order a new election.

The race's troubling aspects have morphed into absurdity. It is time to bring finality. Jennings should concede defeat and the Democratic Party should butt out.

Jennings accomplished what she set out to do with her initial protest. The state Division of Elections did a thorough audit of touch-screen voting machines used in Sarasota and found no system breakdowns or abnormalities. While that doesn't resolve the mystery, analysis by the media and election experts indicates what likely happened. It appears ballot design played a key role in the undervote. The District 13 candidates were listed on a screen dominated by the governor's race, so voters who hurried could have overlooked them. Many voters reported spotting the mistake on the review screen and correcting it.

Unfortunately, Jennings is still blaming voting machine malfunction for the outcome despite contrary evidence. Perhaps that's because the only reason a court would consider ordering a new election is proof of widespread fraud or machine error. While Floridians should be concerned and election officials more careful about ballot design, there isn't sufficient reason to throw out the results.

It would be a big mistake for House Democrats to heed Dean's advice. No election is perfect, and Americans likely would resent a partisan political effort to interfere in the will of voters, no matter how misguided or inattentive they were in casting their ballots.

Instead of stirring up voter discontent, Jennings should put her energy into planning a political future. Buchanan will have to face the voters again in two years, so it is not in Jennings' best interest to come across as a sore loser if she wants to run again. She has raised some legitimate questions about the voting process in Florida, which election officials have taken seriously and investigated thoroughly. It seems improbable that 18,000 voters intentionally skipped the hotly contested congressional race, but no evidence of fraud or equipment malfunction has been found.

It's time for Jennings to bow out and for Democrats to stop fanning fears about electronic voting machines without much more than suspicions.

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Comments on this article

by John	01/12/07 12:09 AM
Why does it always seem it is Democrats that fall prey to the "oh I was too stupid to vote correctly" senario?

by Doug	12/30/06 11:04 PM
I vote for a candidate largely based on party. I expect partisanship. Dems should not seat Buchanan until the software itself has been fully vetted. Voters' firm belief in the fairness of elections supercedes trade-secret rights. In Truth We Trust!

by Adam	12/20/06 02:28 PM
This is just another example of the new press that Republicans love. It's by and for them and them only. They are Republican supporters through and through. Asking for an unbiased opinion from them or expecting one is just a waste of your time.

by Jerry	12/12/06 04:26 AM
You've got to be kidding! If a box with 18,4000 absentee ballots in it was set on fire without being counted, and the final margin in the race was just a few hundred, would you just let it slide? Jennings wins in a fair election. This is a sham.

by George	12/11/06 11:10 PM
I used to spend 3 weeks a year in various parts of Florida. I now won't return to the state until there's clear evidence that the elections are being conducted fairly. Florida elections have become an obscene joke. Thank God for Howard Dean.

by Bob	12/11/06 06:04 PM
This editorial is ridiculous. There should clearly be another election. Missing 18,000 votes is a travesty of democracy. Also, it is remarkable that none of the "voting errors" of the last 6 years have hurt republicans. Very interesting.

by Howard	12/11/06 03:52 PM
The editorial is foolishness. There are means to correct these problems. First, accontability in the machines. Second, simplify the vote holding more elections. There is no reason to lump local, state and national elections into one election day.

by Steve	12/11/06 02:59 PM
Pathetic. 18,000 missing votes is just not right. These systems were HACKED!

by Dennis	12/11/06 12:24 PM
Gore bowed out of the 2000 election and look what that brought us: two wars, war crimes, eradication of the bill of rights, recession, record budget deficits, a radically right-wing supreme court, and environmental havoc. Give 'em hell Dean!

by Jim	12/11/06 10:48 AM
This is a ridiculous editorial. 18,000, the majority of whom voted largely for the Democratic ticket, experience an electonic error that effectively disenfranchises their votes for the US Congress...and the Times says that "they should get over it?"

by Ebenezer	12/11/06 10:44 AM
A news editorial saying we should just "not think about" obvious and serious problems with our election machinery? This is simply irresponsible! The reliability of the process is ABSOLUTELY important... to claim otherwise just ignores the obvious.

by B. Lee	12/11/06 09:34 AM
I've read a lot of stupid op-eds,but "Butt out, Dean: Buchanan won" takes the grand prize. Florida needs to admit its voting machines don't work and hold a second election!Florida voting is a horrible example of criminally unsupervised elections!

by Riles	12/11/06 09:29 AM
Time to cancel my subscription. People can't have faith in democracy if there's no faith in the elections.

by Alec	12/11/06 06:46 AM
Can't the authorities in Florida design a ballot? This is hardly the first botched ballot. Isn't it interesting that Florida errors always favor Republicans?

by Bob	12/10/06 10:21 PM
I agree, this is the worst editorial I have ever read in the Times. The audit found no problems? The audit found problems on EVERY SINGLE MACHINE they "tested"! Do you guys even read your own paper?!

by lemond	12/10/06 09:36 PM
Maybe Florida should lose their state hood we got two major Crooks (jeb & george bush).

by Bill	12/10/06 09:31 PM
What a terrible editorial. 18000 votes missed either by machine design or poor ballot design, yet there is no way to uncover the error and get over it is the St. Pete Times response. Pathetic.

by Pete	12/10/06 09:15 PM
Isn't this editorial from the same "newspaper" that was aware of the Mark Foley emails a year before ABC broke the story? Now this paper is ready to "flush" 18,000 votes rather than go after the real story. Why all the undervotes?

by It Happens	12/10/06 08:26 PM
It does happen. In Walton County Florida undervoting on paper/electronic ballots was over 27% in some races. People are lazy and in a hurry. And the sample ballot matched the real thing.

by Mike	12/10/06 08:14 PM
Another example of Democrats whining because their supporters are too dumb to vote. They should give this issue a rest before it blurs their message of change for the country or they will lose the in the next election cycle.

by Lee	12/10/06 07:16 PM
People are really silly.If someone was trying commit fraud in an election, do you think they would take 1 part of 18,000 votes and make it that obvious? Please stop the Republican vs.Democrat crap & use your logic to find the truth. Operator error.

by Angela	12/10/06 06:20 PM
Try watching "Hacking Democracy" on HBO. You'd know exactly how the machines can be messed up. Scary thought.

by JOE	12/10/06 05:01 PM
I FIND THIS NOT SO FUNNY STORY. I'M SURE THE MACHINES ARE NOT THE PROBLEM IT IS THE OPERATOR NOT HAVING A FULL CHOICE ON HOW TO VOTE. IF THERE WAS A NO VOTE ON THE BALLOT THEN YOU WOULD HAVE A ACCOUNTIBLITY ON THE 18,000 MISSING VOTES.

by bonnie	12/10/06 04:48 PM
that is the most pathetic column i've read in a long time. with 18,000 peoples votes NOT being counted, do you really think we should just shrug our shoulders and say " Oh, Well" it's only an election and these things can happen. Get real!

by Russ	12/10/06 04:43 PM
The whining by liberals is just pathetic.

by robert	12/10/06 01:46 PM
she should get a new election

by Renee	12/10/06 12:51 PM
Republicans are asked to concede for the good of the country. Democrats, on the other hand take their loss to the courts in order to win.

by Come on	12/10/06 12:44 PM
I subscribe to the newspaper to encourage my children to read. With the headline "Butt Out," you have lowered the level of discussion. The editorial is pathetic but the headline is worse. - an upset Sarasota reader, and soon to be former subscriber

by Sheldon Harris	12/10/06 12:14 PM
What else can the DemocRATs do but cry. Not everyone loves them anyway.

by Robert	12/10/06 11:52 AM
I expected more of the Times than this dog's breakfast of Republican talking points. Our subscription will not be renewed. Be a "sore loser" over that. Anything else I might have to say would not be printable.

by paul	12/10/06 11:29 AM
can't touch-screen machines have a "none of the above" choice added, so that voters intent of skipping a race can be clearly identified?

by elizabeth	12/10/06 11:26 AM
The sloppy elections of the state of Florida have resulted so far in the destruction of Iraq, New Orleans, ongoing loss of life, and a crushing national debt. Election negligence and corruption in Florida hurt America. Time for accountability.

by Richard	12/10/06 09:28 AM
I wonder if you would have written the same editorial if the candidate's positions were reversed. I think not. Do you think we would have had this problem with optical scanners? I think not. Computerized voting is toast.