Florida's 13th congressional district

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Florida's 13th congressional district
Population (2000) 639,295
Median income $40,187
Ethnic composition 90.2% White, 4.5% Black, 0.8% Asian, 7.7% Hispanic, 0.3% Native American, 0.2% other
Cook PVI R+4

Florida's 13th congressional district encompasses all of Sarasota, DeSoto, and Hardee County, and most of Manatee County, except for a small northern coastal portion in District 11. It also includes a small section of Charlotte County. It is currently represented by Republican Vern Buchanan. George W. Bush received 56% of the vote in this district in 2004. The district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index score of R +4.

[edit] 2006 election controversy

In the 2006 election, election officials certified Republican businessman Vern Buchanan as the winner of the race over Democratic candidate, banker Christine Jennings by 369 votes. Buchanan was declared the winner after a mandatory recount and analysis of alleged voting machine errors in the race. The primary controversy in this race is that over 18,000 ballots, roughly 1 in 6, cast in Sarasota County apparently did not register a vote for this race, far higher than in the two previous elections involving Jan Schneider, but lower than the undervote in 2000. Sarasota County voted for Jennings by a 6 point margin. Jennings has not conceded the race, and is pursuing administrative and legal challenges to the result, including filing an appeal for an investigation of the election with the House Administration Committee.[1] Preliminary results from an investigation by Congress' Government Accountability Office conclude that there is no evidence that the voting machines or ballot design caused the high undervote, but that inadequate testing made it impossible to prove their complete reliability.[2] Sarasota County has since moved to optical scanned paper ballots as a result of a 2006 referendum vote.

According to a statistical study published in 2008[3], the missing votes were caused by the ballot screen layout. The authors' best estimate on what the result would have been, had this problem not occurred, give victory to Jennings at a 99.9% confidence level, and a mean margin of victory for her of 639 votes.

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ The CQPolitics Interview: Christine Jennings (December 6, 2006)
  2. ^ GAO Report (October 2, 2007)
  3. ^ Arlene Ash and John Lamperti (Spring 2008). "Florida 2006: Can Statistics Tell Us Who Won Congressional District-13?" (pdf). Chance 21 (2): 18 - 24. Springer. 
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