No way Buchanan won this one.

The 2006 House elections may be over for most members, but Rep.-elect Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., faces a potentially lengthy wait before he can rest easy in the seat he won Nov. 7

Rep. Rush D. Holt, D-N.J., said Friday that he will raise a parliamentary inquiry next week concerning voting irregularities in Florida’s 13th District election contest between Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings. Holt will make his move before Buchanan is sworn into office Jan. 4, but the Republican is expected to be seated at least conditionally nonetheless.

Florida’s secretary of state certified Buchanan the winner by 369 votes out of more than 238,000 counted in the race to succeed two-term Republican Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record), who this year made an unsuccessful bid for the Senate. Jennings- protest centers on votes that weren-t counted - namely 18,000 “undervotes” in Sarasota County, the district’s largest jurisdiction and the area where Jennings ran strongest. Those ballots, mostly cast on electronic machines, showed votes cast for other offices but not the House race. The roughly 15 percent undercount far exceeded that in other counties or absentee ballots in Sarasota County.

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