Jennings camp expert testifies on first day of election suit hearing

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061219/BREAKING/61219012&start=1

By LLOYD DUNKELBERGER






TALLAHASSEE - A political science professor from MIT testified Tuesday that Democrat Christine Jennings would have won the Congressional District 13 race by as much as 3,100 votes if there had not be an “excessive” undervote in the election in Sarasota County.

As a witness for Jennings, Charles Stewart estimated that there were as many as 14,000 excessive undervotes in the race, where Republican Vern Buchanan has been declared the winner by a 369-vote margin. Stewart also discounted theories that negative publicity about the race or a confusing ballot design led to the large undervote. He said his analysis showed it was more likely caused by the electronic touch-screen machines malfunctioning.

His testimony came at the beginning of a two-day hearing where Jennings is asking a Leon County circuit court to order Election System & Software Inc. to disclose the computer codes it used to run the machines, arguing that a review of the code could show a flaw in the system. Under questioning from an ES&S lawyer, Stewart also testified that he could not say the high undervote was due to a “computer bug” or hardware problem.

Miguel De Grandy, a lawyer for ES&S, called the arguments raised by Jennings’ experts “mere academic speculation.” He said Jennings has failed to show the voting machines malfunctioned, citing the latest state review of the equipment that showed they were “100 percent” accurate on election day.

If you google "Charles Stewart", his MIT pages are the #2 and #3 hits. It turns out that Charles Stewart was actually quite bullish on new voting technologies including touchscreen machines. He's willing to involve himself in this case and effectively undermine a previous argument of his because he realizes that the protection of over 14,000 voters' rights is more important than not proving wrong something he wrote only last year. http://web.mit.edu/cstewart/www/papers/measuring_2.pdf