Okay, this is admittedly a little tin hattish. Call me a jaded Floridian, but this isn't small potatoes. Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties are the three most heavily populated counties in Florida. These three Democratic-leaning counties historically have offset the rest of the state, resulting in very close elections.
There have been some unfortunate problems lately with the Palm Beach County (FL) Board of Elections. Home of the notorious butterfly ballot brouhaha, the current Supervisor of Elections is Dr. Arthur Anderson (D).
For better or worse, the county has now switched to a new optically scanned ballot counting system, with the voter filling in two parts of an arrow that point to the candidate's name.
More after the break.
After this year's August 26 primary, a very tight race for a minor judge seat resulted in a recount. I think at this point they are up to six recounts, each recount see-sawing a different winner with numbers that never match anything previous. After the first recount, it seemed that 3,500 ballots were missing, as the subsequent tallies were considerable lower than the original election day results. Eventually though, the ballots were found. The poll workers had put a precinct's ballots in two separate boxes instead of one. Currently, there is a clear and consistent winner, although there are still some legal wranglings and that race may appear again on the November ballot.
This has been on the local news endlessly and getting a lot of coverage. To make matters worse, the Democratic Supervisor of Elections has been conspicuously absent and seems to have delegated the supervision of the recount to the Assistant County Manager.
The local Republicans are now making a lot of noise. They have "concerns" about the intergrity of the voting process and fear legal challenges and bad press in the upcoming November election. While there have been real problems, I'm afraid the Republicans also see a golden opportunity to sway the presidential election in their favor. One in particular, County Commissioner Bob Kanjian (R) has been very vocal.
Today it was announced that PBC Supervisor of Elections, Arthur Anderson, who lost his own primary bid, was diagnosed with bone cancer in August. He is undergoing radiation treatments, explaining his absence although it was reported on the news he has been in contact with the elections office every day.
Latest development:
Kanjian has asked fellow commissioners to address the issue by either having Anderson take a leave absence, appoint a deputy or have Gov. Charlie Crist name a replacement.
http://www.wpbf.com/...
Paging Katherine Harris.