Sarasota race to be examined

By BILL ADAIR
Published May 3, 2007

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WASHINGTON - Frustrated by a lack of action by Florida courts in the Sarasota election dispute, a congressional task force voted Wednesday to formally launch an investigation.

The panel voted 2-1 along partisan lines to investigate whether problems with electronic voting machines altered the outcome in the 13th Congressional District in November.

Republican Vern Buchanan was certified the winner by 369 votes, but Democrat Christine Jennings has challenged the results because nearly 18, 000 voters did not make a selection in the race. Jennings has said a software or hardware glitch prevented thousands of votes from being counted.