Where Are The Votes In FL 13???
There is now a myth of where the missing votes in Florida's District 13 Congressional race are...
Some would want you to believe the touchscreen voting machines just failed to work, while others are trying to convince you that you may not have voted at all...
But few are telling you about the voter apathy that was induced into this campaign after the Republican Primary was over and all the negative ads were introduced...
For those who knew local Businessman Vern Buchanan, they knew that both Christine Jennings (D) and Tramm Hudson (R) had been personal Bankers for Vern Buchanan...
People also knew that neither Christine nor Tramm would have had anything to do with the kind of person each of their negative ads were portraying. This was the beginning of what turned voters off and caused them to purposely not vote in the FL District 13 Congressional race...
I have spoken to many who told me immediately after the Primary they were 'fed up' with the negative ads. When they started up again after the Primary, those same people had told me they just weren't going to vote...
I thought to myself this would all pass once the elction was held and somebody won. But I firmly believe that the vast majority of the 18,000 undervote in Sarasota County was in fact 'intentional'...
Now couple all of this with the facts below that have come from actual comments made by people and facts supplied by the Supervisor of Elections Office...
In Sarasota County’s 2004 general election:
12,227 people did not vote in Democrat Jan Schneider’s race against Congresswoman Katherine Harris...
21,334 voters did not vote in the 23rd Senatorial District Race between State Senator Lisa Carlton and Charles Manhart – a 13% undervote...
In the September 2006 primary race for Sarasota County Commissioner, 8,100 of the 61,000 voters did not vote for either candidate – a 13.8% undervote...
In Sarasota County’s 2006 general election:
23,000 to 27,000 voters undervoted in the races for Florida Supreme Court justices and circuit and county court judges 23,668 voters undervoted in the race for Sarasota County Charter Review Board - District 2...
In Florida in the November 7, 2006 race for Attorney General:
22% of voters in Sumter County along with 18% of the voters in Lee County, and 21% in Charlotte County undervoted – totaling 45,000 undervotes...
“‘A lot of people around here did as I (Bernice Furrow) did. They could not stomach so many of the candidates so they left them blank. For instance: I did not vote for Jennings or Buchanan because I could not lower myself to their standards.’” (Herald Tribune, November 14, 2006)...
“Terry Leander, a Holmes Beach retiree, said she was so disgusted with negative campaigning that she voted for only one person, county commission candidate Carol Whitmore.” (Bradenton Herald, November 8, 2006)...
“The Ellenton man (Dick Rogers) said he decided not to vote this year out of disgust at dirty campaigning. ‘They put each other down instead of telling us what they intend to do,’ Rogers said.” (Bradenton Herald, November 8, 2006)...
“‘The campaign was so ugly, so nasty, by the time the election came along I decided I couldn't trust either one of them,’ said Cheryl Crawford, a La Casa voter who cast a ballot in all the other categories, but left Jennings-Buchanan blank. Crawford was one of only a handful of voters on Thursday who acknowledged protesting the campaign in the same way. But most everybody knew somebody who knew somebody who refused to vote in that race.” (Herald Tribune, November 10, 2006)...
“I deliberately abstained from selecting a candidate, and I believe that most of the shortfall can be explained by similar acts. There is no mystery here, as abstention is a legal way of conveying a voter's sentiment, and it is "counted" when such a voting differential occurs.” (Ronald W. Haigh) (Herald Tribune November 9, 2006)...
"’Why there's a discrepancy, I couldn't tell you,’ Dent said. ‘I heard from a lot of people that didn't care for either candidate. I personally undervoted in that race. I don't normally tell people how I vote.”’ (Herald Tribune, November 8)...
“My wife and I both deliberately undervoted on the 13th Congressional District race, choosing neither of the unqualified candidates, as a protest against the poor selection available and the excessive negative advertising that preceded the election.” (John and Vivian Browning) (Herald Tribune, November 10, 2006)...
“State Rep. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, who was a candidate in the Republican primary for the congressional seat, said she thought many voters may have decided ‘to send a message’ about negative campaign ads by not voting in the race. ‘I talked to a lot of people who, because of the negative campaigning, said they wouldn't vote for either candidate,’ Detert said.” (Herald Tribune, November 9, 2006)...
"Undervotes often can be people who've absolutely had it with both candidates and find it easier to not vote at all in that race," said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida.(Bradenton Herald, November 9, 2006)...
“Christine Jennings' campaign said Tuesday that they had received about 50 reports of lost votes and congressional races not being displayed correctly in voting machines. All of the voters, they say, were able to go back and fix their votes.” (Fox 13, November 6, 2006)...
“….numerous voters reported problems casting ballots…. Among them was Kenneth Sanderson, who said he cast an early vote for Jennings last week that didn't show up on the review screen. He corrected it before turning in his ballot.” (Bradenton Herald November 8, 2006)...
“’Dozens of voters sought us out. Intelligent, smart, responsible people that were trying to vote and couldn't get their vote recorded without a lot of difficulty,’ Jenningslawyer Kendall Coffey said.” (St. Petersburg Times November 9, 2006)...
“Rebe Klein, 29, of Sarasota didn't realize she had not voted in the Jennings-Buchanan race until a ballot summary told her so…’” “Klein followed the summary prompts and registered her District 13 vote.” (Charlotte Sun, November 9, 2006)...
“’At the end of the process, I was surprised when the summary screen told me I had not voted in the Jennings-Buchanan race and, in order to change my preference, to click on that race, which I did,’ she (Leslie Furtick of Sarasota) said…. ‘but I voted for my candidate and left the polling place for work.’”(Charlotte Sun, November 9, 2006)...
“After casting his votes, ‘I was disturbed and shocked when the summary told me that I had indicated no preference in the race between Jennings and Buchanan,’ he (Mike Lasche) said.. Lasche said he flagged down a poll worker. ‘He was great,’ he said. ‘He explained that this problem had happened before and that it could be fixed through a series of touch-screen actions. I took those actions, completed my ballot, collected my 'I voted' sticker, and left.’" (Charlotte Sun November 9, 2006)...
"’The Jennings vote wasn't being calculated for some reason,’ he (David Strawser) said….When his distress drew poll workers' attention, a ‘clerk came over and did something and it cleared,’ Strawser said. ‘We did it a third time and it became a true vote.’” (Charlotte Sun, November 9, 2006)...
Once again I would like to point out to everyone that even though the Christine Jennings Campaign says "they have over 2,200 reported incidents from voters," this only equals at best a 13% complaint rate compared to the 18,000 votes called the undervote...
That means 87% of the voters are content with their vote and have no complaint. Think about this for a moment...
Are the voters of the 13th FL Congressional District going to allow 13% or fewer of the people who obviously had 'some' sort of problem understanding how to use a touchscreen voting machine control the end result, namely a WIN for our new Congressman-Elect Vern Buchanan? I think not...
For Christine Jennings, any kind of legal fight would seriously hurt her chances of any further advances in the Political arena...
People already from 'both sides' of the Political aisle are asking her to concede and fight again in another election...
Will she listen to those saying this? I have NO idea. But if I were her and I wanted to run for any Political office again, I would bow out 'gracefully' and live to run another day...
When you come to Florida to visit, you just might want to bring your own water. That's because somebody soon will be saying it's the 'water' causing all these voting problems...
For now, that's just 'MY' opinion...
Matt Bruce
Managing Editor
News Sarasota.com
Host Of "The Captain's AMERICA" Radio Show
