Republican Vern Buchanan made a rollicking, rambling appearance on Hannity and Colmes last night, during which he accused Democrat Christine Jennings of “destroying democracy” by contesting the election results.
The issue in the race, of course, is that electronic voting machines failed to register a vote in the congressional race from more than 13 percent of Sarasota County voters — a rate far higher than other counties and absentee ballots. That statistical aberration or “undervote” has led experts and other reasonable people to declare that something went wrong in the race. But not Buchanan, who enjoyed a victory by a 400-vote margin, and not Sean Hannity.
For those even passingly familiar with the details of the race, the segment is excruciating. You can watch it here:
In the segment, Hannity and Buchanan refer repeatedly to the recounts of the race (despite the fact that paperless electronic voting machines prevent a meaningful recount), which showed no significant shift in the vote counts, to buttress the notion that Democrats are attempting a power grab. Hannity falsely asserted that Democrats “want the court to declare that the Democrat won,” when in fact Democrats are asking for a new election (as Hannity had actually stated earlier in the segment).
In response to questions from Alan Colmes as to why the undervote occurred, Buchanan gave a glass-is-half-full spin, emphasizing “the 238,000 people that did vote in this race.” He had no explanation for the undervote, only offering, “I just think it was a competitive race; there’s a lot of speculation out there you can read.”
Speaking of speculation you can read, a group of political science professors have issued a study (pdf) on the election, finding that the undervote was caused mainly by ballot design — a similar conclusion as that drawn in an analysis by The Sarasota Herald Tribune — and that had there not been a high undervote, Christine Jennings would have won the election.