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WASHINGTON -House Republicans yielded their protest yesterday and sent two members to the first meeting of a task force assigned to look into the contested House race in Florida’s 13th district, setting in motion a legitimized process for the House to review the contest.
The task force met in private to gather information in the case but made no decisions. Lawyers for both sides made presentations about how they think the task force should move forward, and it is set to meet in one or two weeks to deliberate publicly about whether to proceed or dismiss the case.
If the case proceeds, the panel must then decide what course of action to take in its investigation. Members declined to speculate much about what the final recommendations of the task force could be, but possibilities include changing the seated member and vacating the seat. The full House would have to approve any decision.
The task force, chaired by Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas), was created by the House Administration Committee last month to look into the 18,000 ballots in Sarasota County that did not include a vote for the 13th district race.
Democratic nominee Christine Jennings contends that an electronic voting machine malfunction caused the abnormally high undervote. She is challenging the result in Florida court, while Rep. Vern Buchanan (R), who was certified the winner by 369 votes, has been seated by the House.
The state court case is on hold, with both sides waiting for a ruling on an appeal. The trial court initially ruled against Jennings’s request for the secret source codes of the voting machines.
“The locus of activity has shifted now from the state courts to the House of Representatives, where it belongs,” said Sam Hirsch, a lawyer for Jennings, who contended that state action could take longer than the two-year term that is at stake.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was named late Monday as the lone Republican member of the three-person panel, and Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) attended as an extra observer.
But in a letter announcing their presence, full committee ranking member Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.) reasserted his belief that the state should finish acting before the House takes up the case.
With Democrats in the majority and in control of the task force, however, both sides signaled yesterday that they would work together despite their differences over its creation.
“I want to say that I was impressed by the professionalism of the chairman of the task force and the fairness that he displayed,” Lungren said. He described the meeting as a whole as “very, very helpful.”
Lungren added, “If you read the history of contested elections in the House, the vast majority of them were decided unanimously, because we have a responsibility here not as partisans, but as the keepers of the institution.”
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