Committee on House Administration voted yesterday to investigate the possibility of voting machine errors in the election in Sarasota, Florida

Thursday, May 03, 2007 | Congress orders investigation of Sarasota voting machines

A task force of the Committee on House Administration voted yesterday to investigate the possibility of voting machine errors in the election in Sarasota, Florida, that resulted in a win for Republican Vern Buchanan by 369 votes.

The election used touchscreen equipment, and the cause for concern is that some 18,000 votes in the congressional race were not recorded—an "undervote." Whether this occurred because of machine error, voter error or voter intention hasn't been established. But in reality it's unthinkable that so many people troubled themselves to vote and then intentionally failed to select a candidate in the congressional election.

The Democratic candidate Christine Jennings asked to inspect the source code of the voting machines, but was refused by a state court. Her case has now moved to a Florida appellate court, where it has remained for three months. Well, you know how that goes....

Bill Adair writes—

Task force members said the Florida courts were moving too slowly and that Congress had an obligation to conduct a speedy review and settle the dispute.

"There's no indication the courts are going to act - they have not acted yet, " said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., a member of the panel. She noted that House members serve a two-year term but the dispute has already taken six months.

The task force asked the non-partisan Government Accountability Office to conduct the investigation and examine the possibility of software or hardware problems. ...