As noted earlier, the 13th district U.S. House race in Florida was extremely close. Only 300 votes separate the Democrat and the Republican candidates; no other candidates ran. In Sarasota County, Florida, 13% of the people who voted, failed to vote for U.S. House. This picture of the electronic screen ballots shows why. Note pages one and two. In the other three counties in the 13th district, more than 97% of the voters who came to the polls voted for U.S. House. The other three counties did not have this bad design. Also, among the Sarasota County absentee voters who voted by mail (and thus were not subject to this bad design) more than 98% voted for U.S. House.

Since Sarasota County voters who did vote for U.S. House were disproportinately more supportive of the Democratic candidate than the other counties in the district, it is very likely that this poor design cost the Democrats a seat.

An earlier posting that said the Nevada Libertarian Party had not polled enough votes to remain on the ballot was erroneous. The party’s candidate for Washoe County Assessor, Tom Koziel, polled 5,852 votes. The law required any nominee to poll votes equal to 1% of the total statewide congressional vote, which this year equalled 5,746.

The irony is that the party (which nominates by convention) had originally not nominated anyone for Washoe County Assessor. Later, the state chair of the party, Brendon Trainor, sent in an amended list of nominees, including Koziel. State law gave Trainor authority to add additional nominees to the list. However, other party activists did not agree with that additional nomination, and were so irritated with Koziel’s supplemental nomination that Trainor was removed as state chair.

Doug Friedline died on November 10, of a heart attack, at the age of 49. He had been been a leading political consultant for anyone who ran for office outside the major parties. He had worked for Ross Perot and had assumed leadership in Jesse Ventura’s campaign. He had also worked for at least one Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, in New Jersey, and had been working for Max Linn (Reform Party candidate for Governor of Florida) this year. Friedline’s home was in Chappaqua, New York, but he died in Treasure Island, Florida. Thanks to Darcy Richardson for this news.