Posted on 11/18/2012 8:10:52 AM PST by smoothsailing
November 18, 2012
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Fort Pierce — The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board resumed ballot counting this morning in the tight congressional race between Republican Rep. Allen West and Democrat Patrick Murphy under the watchful eyes of dozens of attorneys and supporter of both candidates.
Canvassing board member Tod Lowery, who regularly updates the audience on the process, explained that the board still had write-in ballots and other questionable ballots from 8 days of early voting to review before the noon deadline for the state’s 67 supervisors of elections to submit their final, certified tallies to the state Division of Elections.
Last Sunday, the canvassing board agree to recount ballots cast the last three days of early voting after election officials revealed that machines had been unable to read some of the electronic memory cartridges. West’s attorneys then sought a recount of all early ballots after the elections office admitted double-counting some ballots and ignoring others on election night.
“There was such a cloud of suspicion,” said Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a Boca Raton attorney on the West legal team. Shapiro observed much of the ballot review in Palm Beach county. “I felt the way the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections handled it created suspicion and I still don’t know if it was unnecessary or justified.”
That recount began at 9:40 a.m. yesterday and continued until 10 p.m. The canvassing board resumed counting at 8 a.m. today. Unlike the 4-day ballot review in Palm Beach county that ended November 10, where Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher offered few updates and ignored or routinely declined to answer questions from reporters, attorneys and the public, the St. Lucie Canvassing Board has allowed representatives has encouraged officials from both campaigns to agree on protocol. That includes how and when results will be released today.
“We just want to be transparent and assure voters that every vote is counted,” said County Judge Kathryn Nelson, a member of the canvassing board.
Murphy’s campaign officials declined to comment on the recount process. However, West’s campaign manager, Tim Edson, said he is pleased with how smoothly the recount has gone and impressed with the canvassing board’s attention to detail.
“I’m confident with what we’ve seen here, the results will be accurate,” Edson said. One lingering concern remains: the West team’s request to view the poll sign-in sheets from election day. Edson said they had received some of those records from Palm Beach county and have not received the sign-in sheets — which voters sign went the vote — in St. Lucie county. West’s campaign wants to compare the number of signatures on the poll sign-in sheets to the computer tabulations.
did they count the “141%” of the votes, or are they making sure they’ve got a bonafide registered vote before they count the vote? haven’t heard this discussed
Ms. Walker finally released a little * on their website explaining the cards (2 per voter). Amazing it took her 4-5 days to put that on her site and every other county managed to release a report with the same amount of cards (or more) and report as “ballots” instead of “cards”.
Now there is reported trouble with one ballot that didn’t load so they will have to certify the “original” results?
What the heck?
Murphy camp declares victory due to missed deadline
They intentionally ran out the clock!! Are you freakin kidding me?
Under Florida law, if deadline is missed to certify then the original counts will be used from last Sunday!!
That’s why they stalled from last night, West won this thing..
Looking at the law, there isn’t any wiggle room to miss the deadline. I assume the county canvassing board and the state have been conferring on the phone since they found the latest error on that last memory card- which could explain the silence so far.
But Palm Beach tried to pull this in 2000- submitting a partial result from their infamous hanging chad counting- and it was denied. Legally challenged and upheld, I don’t see how to get around the law.
It does, however, add weight to West’s contest action. Sure hope he gets better lawyers!!
“Recount over and over until they win. This happened to us in Washington State when the Rats stole the governorship from Rossi.”
and don’t forget Al Frankin, yuck.
I believe that the House of Representatives can decide whom to seat notwithstanding the certification. If the Republican-controlled House stands on principal, they can vote to seat West in light of the fraudulent count that gave the victory to Murphy.
Thanks for the info.:)
Reading all that’s happened, I feel like I’m living in a dictator’s paradise.
Yes, A lot like Nazi Germany in the 30s.
This is a great PR and Chamber of Commerce moment for St. Lucie County, “Come relocate your business and live here. We won’t count your vote but take your taxes anyway!”.
Republicans don’t care if elections are stolen from them..
Example: Myth Romney...
what does “2 cards” per voter have to do with the price of eggs? 2 cards per voter 141/2 = 70.5% turnout? I don’t understand what you are saying.
Yes, according to Freepers who voted there. They had two ballots and that County counted them as total turnout on the first two pages of the summary. They waited 5 days to add an explanation to the summary. The remaining 148 pages broken down had the actual voter count which was 1/2 the summary. Every total turnout on the first two pages, had to be divided by two. (but what Elections expert puts out a summary that is misleading? when asked by a reporter the next day, Ms. Walker expressed surprise and had no idea why the turnout was reported in the 140-160% range)
The other Counties managed to complete their initial reports by actual number of voters.
Where I live, we had one ballot, two sides, and no reporting of number of “cards” instead of turnout by voters.
OK, thanks. the 2 card thing.....is that what caused the over 100% turnout cases all over the country? that 158.58 one?
apparently so
From a Goldwater Guy........thank you for your research and information. It is sincerely & deeply appreciated.
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