Another court hearing is scheduled for tomorrow. Here’s the latest, according to local news reports:
As state auditors watch over the elections process in St. Lucie County through one recount, some are hoping a judge will grant a second.A hearing has been scheduled for Friday afternoon to hear Congressman Allen West’s request for a full recount in his race with Patrick Murphy.As of Wednesday evening, Murphy’s lead over West was just outside the half-percent margin that would trigger an automatic recount.In a lawsuit, West claims a recount of early votes done over the weekend in St. Lucie County was improper. Three days of early voters were recounted. West’s camp wanted all 37,000 plus early votes recounted.On Wednesday, David Drury from the Florida Division of Elections, arrived and immediately went to work observing the elections process in St. Lucie County.A recount for the Fort Pierce mayoral race triggered by the closeness of the race took up most of the day.Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker admitted Tuesday that there were issues with thousands of votes, but the recount done last Sunday cleared up that matter.Walker also said she doesn’t have the authority to order a full recount under state law.
The West campaign issued the following statement:
West for Congress released this statement regarding the growing inconsistencies and continued obfuscation coming from St. Lucie County Board of Supervisors, Gertrude Walker, regarding the election results.“Last night during a press conference, the Supervisor announced her office had determined that approximately 3,650 ballots were double-counted on election night, and approximately 1,950 ballots were not counted at all, with all ballots coming from the last three days of early voting – which is what was retabulated on Sunday. However, if this information is accurate, the total vote in the county should have decreased by 1,700 votes after the Sunday retabulation. Instead the total votes cast declined by 799. It simply does not add up.In addition, according to news reports, the Supervisor of Elections announced her office re-ran some 26,000 ballots from early voting. This would account for the first 6 days of the 8 days of early voting. However, on election night, the campaign staff was told there was a problem with the first 3 days of voting, which would involve approximately 13,000 ballots based on information uploaded to the Division of Elections. What is the truth?Finally, during the same press conference, the Supervisor announced there were some “blank” memory cards involved. If these “blank” memory cards were in reference to the election night decision to retabulate 26,000 ballots, then the cards processed on the first 5 days of early voting have been processed twice, the ballots on day 6 have been processed three times, and of the ballots on the last two days, some have been processed twice and some only once. Whether this resulted through mechanical malfunction, negligence or willful action, the voters of St. Lucie County deserve to know their votes have been fairly counted.Towards that end, we are pleased Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner has decided to send auditors to St. Lucie County to examine the returns and the ballot-counting process, and we have detailed our concerns to him in a letter today.The West campaign is simply seeking the truth, and an accurate count of votes. Given the inconsistencies emanating from the Supervisor’s office, we have no confidence in any of the information regarding the votes counted or the election results overall.”
West also has started a separate Recount Fund.
In the meantime, Patrick Murphy was in Washington yucking it up with Democrats, who openly cheered West’s loss.
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