Sen. Dianne Feinstein has ventured a bit off her traditional milquetoast by aggressively going after voting irregularities in the 2006 midterms.  Specifically, she is questioning what happened in Sarasota County in Florida’s 13th District.  Republican Vern Buchanan won by 369 votes.  But Sarasota’s 18,000 undervotes raises serious questions about the reliability of the election. (h/t SSP)

Unwilling to wait for the courts to rule on the disputed Sarasota elections, a key member of the U.S. Senate is launching an investigation into the 13th Congressional District race.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she will ask the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct a “top-to-bottom investigation” to determine what caused 18,000 Sarasota County undervotes in the race for Congress.

“I think we have to get at it,” said Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee. “If there was a problem with the black box, I think we have to know it. I think the people of the county are entitled to know it.”(HeraldTribune.com 2/8/07)

One of the moments that made me most proud to be a California was when Sen. Barbara Boxer stood up to challenge the voting irregularities in Ohio..  I’m certainly not equating the two, either in terms of courage or in effect.  While Boxer’s move was more courageous, DiFi’s latest push on elections could well be far more effective.  Send her an email or give her a call and let her know that this was the right thing to do.  Here is her contact info.