While most of the 2006 elections are over, there's still a bit of a contention coming from, where else, Florida. In the Sarasota congressional race, a recount was held and 18,000 under votes were discovered. That meant those people voted for everything else but not for congress. This drew alarm bells from people because the percentage of under votes was higher than anywhere else. And, you'd have to figure that the one race people would vote on would be for congress instead of the school board or bond measures or a Sarasota style Question Time. Voters also complained that the machines garbled everything up and they never got a chance to vote.
Now, all of this would be easy to fix if there was a paper trail but, alas, those whacky machines don't have a paper trial. Nothing, Nada, Zilch. Which means there's no way anyone can tell who really won or not. So despite the fact the Sarasota disctrict is a Democratic district, the Republican is now in Washington getting a crash course in how to be a congress person (with such classes of "What To Do if You Diddle a Page" or "Earmarks: Live It, Learn It, Love It" and for Republicans, "Why You Should Never Vote Against the President Despite the Fact He's an Idiot") while the Democrat is suing to get in, the with help from Howard Dean and the new Democratic majority .
So what does all of this have to do here in the Yay Area? The new head of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee is our very own Dianne Feinstein and DiFi is on the case. Once she moves into position of power, she promises to propose legislation that in the Senate (there's a similar bill about to be proposed in the House) would force electronic voting machine companies to supply a paper trail. She also wants it so that all of the vote counting software will be checked out and the code possibly made public.
There's a good chance that this legislation will place. By now, everyone is starting to figure out that the system as we have it is unworkable. And Democrats, for whatever reason, are a little touchy about unreliable election results.
California, BTW, is already moving in that direction.
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Someone failed to fact check this article.
First, "In the Sarasota congressional race, a recount was held and 18,000 under votes were discovered."
This wasn't uncovered by a recount, this was known on election night/morning. In fact, it is well known that Sarasota has produces thousands of undervoted ballots for years. In 2000, there were 25,000 that did not register a vote in the same District 13 race.
Second, "That meant those people voted for everything else but not for congress."
It means no such thing. There were 10 races/ballots questions that were undervoted by more than 22,000 and some as many 27,000.
http://www.srqelections.com/results/gen2006sum.htm
Third, "Now, all of this would be easy to fix if there was a paper trail."
Really? In 2000, there was a paper trail, yet there were more than 25,000 spoiled ballots.
I am all for a paper trail, but a paper trail does not guarantee that a voter will cast a vote in every race.
Fourth, "So despite the fact the Sarasota disctrict is a Democratic district"
Again, this is false. Sarasota is made up of 47% Repubicans vs. 31% Democrats.
Why would you call this a Democrat district?