House Seat Hangs by a Byte

As the 110th Congress settles into the Capitol building this month, one congressman won't be able to get too comfortable in his chair, with a controversy over the electronic voting machines that put him in office boiling down to a battle over the source code.

Republican Vern Buchanan claimed Florida's 13th Congressional District seat last November by fewer than 400 votes, while some 18,000 ballots cast in Sarasota County mysteriously contained no vote either for Buchanan or his Democratic opponent Christine Jennings -- an anomaly that prompted Jennings to challenge the election results in a lawsuit against state election officials, Buchanan and the company that makes the machines.

Original Post: Wired Magazine