Tampa Trib to Jennings: Throw in the Towel

The Tampa Tribune has published its second editorial calling on Christine Jennings to end the FL-13 drama. (see earlier post)

Christine Jennings continues to seek a new election in the District 13 congressional race even though two recounts concluded she lost to opponent Vern Buchanan and two state audits found the touch-screen voting machines used in Sarasota County functioned properly.

There is no evidence of tampering and only theories - no facts - that somehow the voting machines malfunctioned, yet Jennings refuses to end her lawsuit.

Sure, she's been talking about the sanctity of the vote and defending the true choice of the voters, but what she wants is the win. Since the recount numbers didn't go her way, she hopes a sympathetic judge will overturn the election results.

Jennings would use statistics, not vote counts, to show that most of the voters who for some reason failed to vote in her race would actually have voted for her. After all, Jennings the Democrat carried what has traditionally been a Republican county.

But then wouldn't that suggest more Republicans than Democrats chose not to vote in the race?

Losing by 369 votes after a vicious campaign and in a season when Democrats were winning has to be a bitter pill to swallow, and Jennings will forever wonder just exactly why things didn't go her way.

But voters made their choice, and without a verified paper trail to prove otherwise, Jennings came up short. Now it's time to stop.

The Tallahassee Sentinel could not have said it better - OK, maybe a little better.