Unbossed brings us the preliminary report issued by the General Accountability Office, the nonpartisan investigative branch of the US Congress, into irregularities in the results of the election for Florida's 13th Congressional District in 2006.

Specifically, 18,000 people, or nearly 15%, either did not vote for a Congressional candidate or didn't have their votes counted.

It's not unusual for some people to choose not to vote for a particular office while voting for others--but, in general, this tends to happen from top down. In other words, the top of the ticket (President, Senate, or Congress) gets the most votes, and people tend to drop off when it gets down to things like judges and ballot referenda. In other words, it's not unusual for the candidate for dog catcher to get 15% fewer votes than the Congressional candidate, but not the other way around. Something is clearly amiss.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen initiated a top-to-bottom review of the voting machines and processes in California. Here's what Florida's review looked like according to the GAO:

[O]ur analysis has found at least 112 different ways a voter could make his or her selection and cast the ballot in the Florida-13 race, assuming that it was the only race on the ballot. Specifically, a voter could (1) initially select either candidate or neither candidate (i.e. undervote), (2) change the vote on the initial screen, and (3) use a combination of features to change or verify his or her selection by using the page back and review screen options. We found that the Florida certification tests and the Sarasota County logic and accuracy tests verified 3 ways to select a candidate; and the Florida parallel tests verified 10 ways to select a candidate--meaning that of the 112 ways, 13 have been tested. (emphasis supplied)

Aren'tcha glad we have Debra Bowen looking out for us? Tell her thanks.