Christine Jennings mum about '08 plans

All Democrat Christine Jennings wants is the truth about what happened last Nov. 7 when there was an 18,000-vote discrepancy between the number of Sarasota County residents who cast ballots in her Florida Congressional District 13 race with Republican Vern Buchanan and the results that were recorded.

"Is it too simplistic?" she asked. "Why was there such a flawed election? What went wrong with the voting machines? Why was such a poor ballot design allowed? Why was a letter from the voting equipment manufacturer about the need for a computer patch ignored?"

Buchanan was awarded a 369-vote victory over Jennings by county and state elections officials who have attempted to answer questions posed by Jennings and many others about what happened, and who will now be the subject of a Congressional investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Office.

The independent investigation arm of Congress will reportedly send out letters that request complete cooperation from all elections officials -- including Sarasota County Supervisor Kathy Dent and her staff -- with the threat of subpoenas for those who choose to do otherwise.

While it is highly doubtful at this late date that a protracted investigation could unseat Buchanan and force another election, Jennings said that's not her goal.

"People want to know they can depend on our electoral system," she said, "and candidates who work their hearts out shouldn't have to face odds they don't know about."

House cleaning

Anybody who has spent time with Jennings in a public location since the night of Nov. 7 has experienced the same phenomenon. People she does not know routinely approach her, introduce themselves, relate their election day experiences at one of the county voting precincts, and urge her not to give up.

"A radio talk show host recently told me his sister tried to record her vote once, then twice, and finally got it to register the third time," she said. "A lady came up to me just last week and said she wanted to fill out a complaint report about what happened to her after all this time. I even had somebody stop me at the airport in Washington, D.C."

Sarasota County residents voted to get rid of the paperless ES&S iVotronic election equipment on the night of Nov. 7 when they approved a charter amendment that mandates a system with paper ballot receipts for recounts in closely contested races.

And after six months of deliberations by an advisory board, and a legal appeal of the ballot language that is still unresolved, the county commission finally agreed to new optical scanning equipment produced by another company.

As a result, voters, advisory board members and commissioners have effectively cleaned house with respect to ES&S and its paperless election machines. The only thing they haven't admitted is the Nov. 7 election results were flawed, and Jennings doesn't expect that to happen.

In the moment

She is a realist. Buchanan is a Republican. All five county commissioners are Republicans. Dent is a Republican. The Florida Division of Elections is run by Republicans. It would take a leap of political faith to think any of them would intercede. Had Jennings won by 369 votes it might be a different story.

"Right now, I feel a burden has been lifted off my shoulders because the Government Accountability Office is going to conduct an investigation of what happened," she said. "I think about all the important changes in this country since it was created, and they all happened because people didn't give up."

The $64,000 question is whether Jennings will prepare for another run in 2008 if Congress doesn't throw out the '06 results before the next election cycle.

"I'm not ready to talk about '08 yet," she said. "I'm living in the moment. This has been a long and difficult process. I want to enjoy how far we have come."

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