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December 30, 2006

Florida Candidate Denied Right To Inspect Voting Machine Software

Remember Christine Jennings, the Florida Congressional candidate against whom the Republican Party spent $58 million on robo calls? The people who received such calls about Jennings were misled by the calls' content and thought that they were being warned about her by her own political party. They learned differently only if they listened to the entire call, which most of them did not. But when they hung up, they would be called again. And again. Most people, of course, did not want to listen to the entire call.

In Florida's 13th District, Jennings lost by under 380 votes. In Sarasota County, 18,000 votes did not register on the voting machines, making matters even worse.

Today, it was announced that a Leon County judge has turned down Jennings' request to access the secret software that operates the voting machines in the 13th District of Florida. Just as bad, House Democrats announced they would do nothing to obstruct the seating of the district's new Congressman, Vern Buchanan. The judge said that Jennings' experts relied on conjecture and speculation, and did not provide "credible evidence" that warranted the candidate's inspecting the source code used for the voting machine software.

Soldiers Too Are "Down On the War"

Yesterday, the Military Times released their annual opinion poll, which serves as a barometer for the military's morale. This year, the report's name says it all. "Down on the war" sends a strong message from American troops in Iraq -- their spirit is down and waning further still. Think Progress has most of the report's highlights, but the most prescient of them are that less than half of the respondents think troop escalation is the answer and even if it is the answer, nearly 75% think the military is "stretched too thin to be effective." The Wall Street Journal reported extensively on the military's economic shortfalls earlier this month. Although the 945 respondents, out of the 4000 active-duty officers polled because they are Military Times subscribers, are not representative of the entire force, they seem to be among the most knowledgeable and experienced. They are on average older and more likely to be officers. 66% have been deployed at least once.