Florida: manual recount of non-existent paper trail begins in FL-13
The Orlando Sentinel reports: As officials begin a manual recount Thursday of more than 18,000 disputed ballots in the race for the 13th Congressional District, a handful of voting-rights and ballot-reform groups seeking to force a new election have put out a call to unhappy voters.
The organizations are holding a public hearing Thursday at a downtown hotel to hear from residents who fear their votes were incorrectly recorded or who failed to choose a candidate in the race because the ballot design was confusing. ...
More than 18,000 ballots cast in Sarasota County showed no choice was made in the hotly contested congressional race between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings. The so-called "undervote" in that race - which Buchanan now leads by 401 votes - was about 15 percent among voters who used computer touch-screen machines. That compares to undervotes of less than 3 percent in parts of the district with different voting machines.
Dozens of voters complained that they may have inadvertently missed the race because they were confused by the layout of the computer screen ballot. Others - some have sworn out affidavits - insist they made a choice, but noticed on a final review page that it had not registered. -- KRT Wire | 11/16/2006 | Florida officials begin manual recount of 18,000 ballots