In the disputed race between Christine Jennings and Vern Buchanan --the two are separated by 369 votes in their claim to a seat in the US House of Representatives-- the "iVotronic" touchscreen machines at the precincts did not alert voters to undervotes, and did not ask if they wished to input a vote choice in a race that was not yet recorded.

Yet, that operation is at odds with specific printed instructions on the website of election supervisor Kathy Dent (R) that showed voters the sequence to expect in casting a vote on Sarasota County's iVotronic, sold by Election Systems & Software (ES&S). [Screenshot here - scroll; the link is at the jump.]

18,000 voter records registered no vote for a congressional seat, 13% of voters [1 of 8] who walked into the booth, yet only 1.2% of Sarasota absentee (paper) ballots cast no vote in that race. >>  More people had a vote recorded for "Hospital Board southern district" than for the Jennings-Buchanan race to replace Katherine Harris.

After moving from Florida, where "modern" voting machine innovations caused nothing but havoc in a state that provided Republicans with a chance to steal the presidency in 2000, I was delighted with my first experience today in Seattle.

It was a delight casting my initial vote in Seattle for one basic reason; they did it the tried and true old-fashioned way and as a result there will be no problem with paper trails and the like or vanishing would-be votes.

My voting precinct was sandwiched between Key Arena, where I watch our local Sonics play pro basketball, and the Seattle Repertory Company, which has become widely renowned for featuring the plays of Seattle's great dramatist, the recently deceased August Wilson.

Having had some bitter experiences with the new touch screen voting process while living in Fort Lauderdale, an innovation that seems to serve no legitimate purpose and is completely unnecessary, it was a delight to walk over to a courteous poll worker, who provided me with a welcome piece of information.

                                                         cross-posted at   dailykos

In the closest statewide election in Virginia's modern history, a state Court has supervised, and certified, a so-called "recount" of the race for Attorney General.

Did the voting machine in your county tally your ballot
 — or did it count you out?

         Recount Starts, but Without Va. Ballots
         Wednesday December 21, 2005; Page B01    Wash. Post

The recount in the race for Virginia attorney general began yesterday ... but because of rules set earlier by a three-judge panel overseeing the process, very few votes were actually recounted.

          It is "only a reverification and a checking of the paperwork," said Robert Moses of the Loudon county Democratic Committee.

Two rulings by the court kept 25% of Virginia's ballots, almost all of the optical-scan ones, from being looked at or refed through the tallying machines.

The candidates for Attorney General were separated by less than two-hundredths of a percent, a mere 323 votes out of nearly 2 million cast.

Many of the votes were tallied on a scanner model named the Optech III-PE. The III-P Eagle machine recently lost its certification in North Carolina and created unexpected counting problems in races in Colorado — where a  review of the ballots flipped two races after it found bunches of marked ballots were skipped over by the machines.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), is back in NC:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a court complaint Thursday aimed at blocking North Carolina's recent certifications of voting machines, saying state elections officials failed to meet legal requirements before signing off on the systems.

Via CNET News.  Guardians never sleep.  Guess NC missed that part.

Diebold, friend to Republicans everywhere, has withdrawn it's bid to sell its voting machines in North Carolina.  Why?  Because North Carolina passed regulations that would have forced Diebold to reveal their source code.  

As always, sunshine is a very effective antisceptic.