Posted on 11/17/2006 11:05:08 AM PST by RWR8189
WASHINGTON - If a recount in Sarasota fails to award Democrat Christine Jennings a seat in Congress, she has a final recourse: The newly Democratic-controlled U.S. House.
A little-known provision in the U.S. Constitution gives the House the final decision on who sits in its chamber.
House staffers have already been dispatched to Sarasota to monitor the recounts, and both candidates in District 13 - Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan - say they are aware that a disputed election could be appealed to Washington.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida Democrat working with Jennings, said she hopes it wouldn't come to that, but she wouldn't rule out anything that would help determine if voters were disenfranchised.
"All options are on the table," she said. "We're going to explore any available option."
Still, House members and political observers say either party would be reluctant to take up a case that would lead to partisan warfare.
"I can't imagine that would happen," said Rep. Ric Keller, R-Orlando. "I don't think you'd want this to be settled by partisan politics."
Though it has happened before.
In 1984, the House refused to seat an Indiana Republican who narrowly beat his Democratic opponent in a race marred by ballot problems.
Instead, the Democratic-controlled House ordered a recount using its own rules, handing the victory to the Democrat.
Weeks later, 179 Republican members stormed out of the Capitol to protest what they described as a stolen election.
Rep. C.W. Bill Young, an Indian Shores Republican who was in office during the Indiana vote, said he didn't much care for the House getting involved then and wouldn't care much for it now - particularly because the Democrats will take control of the House in January.
"We prefer the decision be made by voters in the congressional district," Young said. "I prefer that the Republican win, obviously, and the original count favored Buchanan."
Buchanan led Jennings by 377 votes after the first count. With a recount underway, both chose to attend freshman orientation for House members in Washington this week.
Jennings is challenging the result because touch screen voting machines in Sarasota County recorded that 18,382 people, or 13 percent of all voters, did not vote for either candidate, a rate much higher than in other counties in the district.
Members of seven voter advocacy groups Wednesday called for a new vote and an outside investigation into Sarasota's voting system. They planned to collect stories of disenfranchised voters at a meeting there today.
A recount of the touchscreen totals and optical scan absentee ballots was completed late Tuesday, giving Buchanan a 401-vote lead. A manual recount will begin today, and those results are expected to be certified by the state Monday.
Each candidate has 30 days from then to ask the House Administration Committee to investigate, which usually takes a few weeks to several months.
Since 1993, about 105 such cases have been sent to committee but only a handful have made it to the full House for a vote.
Usually the committee dismisses the case, though it could recommend to the full House that it order a new recount or new vote. The House could also simply refuse to seat the presumed winner, leaving the seat vacant or filling it with someone else.
As it tends to do for extremely close races, the committee has already sent a team of staffers, consisting of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, to monitor the recount.
In this case, any investigation and resolution by the House or its committee is virtually guaranteed to take place after the Democrats take over Congress in January.
Rep. Allen Boyd, a North Florida farmer who is co-leader of the Blue Dogs conservative Democratic group, welcomed Jennings to its ranks Wednesday and said he's hoping she'll be able to stay.
He said it's too early to start talking about the House making a decision in the election but if it does: "We're in charge. Absolutely she'll get a fair shot."
I think you are mistaken in your assesment.
You can shun without such crass behavior.
That is only worthy of DUmies and DUmp dwellers.
The bottom line is that most of the people who were "teach them a lesson" voters were fools and STILL don't see they created this mess.
The time for lessons is in the PRIMARIES not the general election.
The republicans elected one of the ILLEGAL ALIEN AMNESTY authors as RNC chair.
They put TRENT "GO ALONG TO GET ALONG" LOTT in the number two slot.
They put how many wimp leaders in the leadership?
I have zero faith in them.
Unless we see some blood letting and courage, they are worthless until the next Ronald Reagan comes along.
This would be a gang rape of the Republic if it were to happen. For now, we should hope it doesn't come to that, and we don't know that it will. Let's not borrow trouble.
I don't think that was serious. I hope not, anyway. ;-)
So do I: I forgot to mention lawsuits as a good way to harass her. Hit her money, not just her mind.
You can shun without such crass behavior.
True. But you can't send the right message to the Dems: if you win because you got more votes in the district, that's democracy; if you win because you got more votes in the House, we will break you.
Lefties are facists who will cheat.
Chavez is threatening his TV stations; there is no sense of fair play.
Republicans need to expose these domestic enemies; they're worse than Iraqi terrorists.
Remember that Rome fell from internal corruption.
Right, all that clause says is that the governor may call a special election if there's a vacancy in a House seat.
He won the manual and final recount...It will not stop her from taking it to court and still trying to over turn it..........
He won the manual and final recount...It will not stop her from taking it to court and still trying to over turn it..........
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