Day two of examining ballots and counting votes in the Congressional District 18 race is on the horizon and Allen West’s supporters are crying foul.
According to Tim Edson, West’s campaign manager, they have good reason to be outraged. In a media release sent out Wednesday, Edson said:
“Late last night Congressman West maintained a district-wide lead of nearly 2000 votes until the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections ‘recounted’ thousands of early ballots. Following that ‘recount’ Congressman West trailed by 2,400 votes. In addition, there were numerous other disturbing irregularities reported at polls across St. Lucie County including the doors to polling places being locked when the polls closed, in direct violation of Florida law, thereby preventing the public from witnessing the procedures used to tabulate results. The St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections office clearly ignored proper rules and procedures, and the scene at the Supervisor’s office last night could only be described as complete chaos. Given the hostility and demonstrated incompetence of the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections, we believe it is critical that a full hand recount of the ballots take place in St. Lucie County. We will continue to fight to ensure every vote is counted properly and fairly, and accordingly will pursue all legal means necessary.”
“The hostility and demonstrated incompetence” concerned Ellyn Snyder, a West volunteer in Palm Beach County, who described a day of tension Wednesday at the vote tabulation center in Riviera Beach. Military ballots, she said, were being recorded and written on by tabulators in a separate area of the room restricted from observers. Snyder said she brought this to the attention of an elections employee and was curtly told to speak with Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher. Bucher, though, was repeatedly unavailable throughout the day.
“Bucher gave a quick briefing to the press earlier in the day, and then she leaves us hanging with questions unanswered,” Snyder said.
Other volunteers said they were frustrated and don’t trust Bucher, a known partisan Democrat, since she burned Republicans by opening the polls for two extra days after early voting had ended. Bucher reportedly notified Democratic Party leaders but left Republican leaders to find out through liberal newspapers.
The West campaign has filed an injunction to impound the ballots throughout the district in case a recount is ordered. The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, and the injunction is expected to be granted.
St. Lucie Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker denies any wrongdoing on the part of her county election officials and calls West’s request “unusual.” She insists that the election was properly handled, despite the accusations from Wests team. But Tim Edson, Wests campaign manager said the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections office clearly ignored proper rules and procedures when they locked the doors late at night and counted votes without any public access to observe. West was ahead before that improper count. Shortly after midnight, Murphy was announced the winner, but the race has not yet been called by the Associated Press.
Video: Partisan elections supervisor in charge of Allen West ballots rudely refuses comment
About Michele Kirk
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Has this nation become a country of cheaters if your guy doesn’t win you cheat!! What our we teaching our children, not play by the rules!! I live in a college town and listen to the students and see how some of them work!! Some work just to get a pay check while others take pride in their jobs!! Then there are those who tell me what they are majoring in and I really wonder what they are thinking!! Business and finance and communications are some the courses I hear the most!! I have a neighbor whose son went to college and took business and finance now he can’t find a job!! Everyday you layoffs from financial institutions. It worries me that those students are smart but have no common sense!! It is really going to tough to find good citizens to run for office if they feel the elections are rigged!! The only ones who will wind up running is liars and cheats!!
Ardell, you’re quoting directly from the Roger Ailes/Rupert Murdoch playbook – Forward!
This election has proved there is no integrity left in this country!
Lying, cheating, stealing, the hallmark of Democrat election tactics have proven to be enough to give the country back to the most corrupt administration in history!
The fools sold their childrens future for an Obama phone! They don’t know they are bought and paid for, cheap!
They are still living on a plantation and blaming the wrong people, the democrats are keeping them and always will, because it will keep them in power!
Incredible!
I suspect we already have a bunch of cheats out there. I also believe that there was cheating in the Presidential Election. We need to develop a better system for the voting public. It needs to be foolproof.
Louie, Gov. Scott is the last one to develop a better fair electoral system and in a democracy, even fools can vote. Fools like Allen West can even run for election.
You would call West a fool, after all, he is an honest patriot who has served this country, all of those are reasons to attack him, according to the left wing liberal liars playbook!
Slime like you are a disgrace to the United States!
Let us begin with the precinct’s on Election Day. If you would like additional information, contact me as I served as a Poll Watcher for three precincts (in one location) in Allen West’s district. Since I served as a Poll Watcher for the Romney campaign, I was provided with a number to the Legal Hotline if I saw any discrepancies. Needless to say, I was on the phone a multitude of times regarding inappropriate voting practices that occcurred over and over and over again. All information that I will provide was documented by the Romney legal team.
Andrea, do you seriously expect anyone to trust the RoMoney legal team? This is supposed to be a country where just laws apply to all. RoMoney’s legal team is the last place I’d look for justice.
RU SERIOUS…I do not trust the election process and SOE Office.
You can’t be serious, if you think anyone with a functioning brain believes a word your ilk spout, you are fooling no one but yourself!!
The polls were rigged from the beginning with poll workers wearing Obama shirts, and telling voters to vote democrat, Obama murals over the walls of the polling stations, and voting machines ‘calibrated by SEIU union workers to record votes for Obama regardless of what the voter pressed!
But worse than that, is the action of three million so called republicans who didn’t vote and handed the country to Obama on a platter! You should send them a nice left wing gift!
In every defeat there is a lesson. West won by learning that lesson last time. This time, he became overconfident and believed his fundraising, which exceeded his opponent Patrick Murphy almost 5-1, to lull him into a sense of overconfidence, and his firewall of negative ads and character assassination mailers did not hold. To scream cheating and conspiracy is to assign one’s own mistakes to someone else, and ultimately, ignore one’s ability to learn. That would not be smart. Move on, if he intends to continue his political career.
Trust cannot be blind, it needs to be earned. Verify everything!
Well said Quan!
Well said indeed Quan.
Did West vote for the patriot act?
It’s comical to read this and hear accusations about cheating from the side who practiced it so brilliantly in 2000!
I observed a polling site in Boca and while my guy didn’t come out ahead that night there were no irregularities at all – as a matter of fact one of the Romney people who was a poll worker was trying to deny my right as a citizen to be in the room after the polls had closed – she was making calls trying to get me thrown out even though the law is totally clear on that matter.
Jayne, my erudite mother told me that ‘cheats never prosper’.
As a retired military person, I am tired of our absentee ballots being treated in such a cavalier fashion. When on active duty, we are encouraged to vote because “it is our duty.” If they are not counting Congressman West’s military absentee ballots accurately, then those who are overseas defending our country are not being represented.
D.M.Davis, CDR, USN-ret.
D.M. Davis,
These absentee ballots they are copying are not military ballots. They are local Palm Beach residents who have requested an absentee ballot by mail. The military/foreign ballots have yet to be counted from what I’m told.
What is happening with the military absentee ballots should be thoroughly researched. I read an article saying that absentee ballots being sent to the military were destroyed when a plane caught fire.
http://news.yahoo.com/absentee-ballots-may-destroyed-crash-210240583–election.html
Then that call messages were left from elections telling voters they could bring in their absentee ballots “tomorrow” except tomorrow would be Wednesday, the day after elections were over. Obama’s campaign workers were handing out pizzas so voters wouldn’t leave the lines, except that campaign workers aren’t allowed within 100 ft of the precinct’s door. Why didn’t the deputy for that precinct stop that? The mayor in Dade County was bypassed by the supervisor of elections, who went directly to his vice-mayor for approval to continue voting on Sunday.
The issue here is not being allowed to vote because anyone who really wants to vote can cast his/her vote on the whole 8 days allowed. Governor Scott was generous to even allow early voting. There was also absentee ballots and the official voting day. Not for one moment do I think that West lost. Maybe they should have the election over with supervision from both parties. The trouble with candidates is that they work so hard and forget the main goal are the votes and that they are cast in a non cheating way.
We can’t be intimidated by this screaming mob. They are loudly vocal, but not the majority of voters.
Start arresting the people involved in this election cheating and make their PARTY libel for a lawsuit!!!
Greg I agree, let’s start with Gov. Scott!
Allen West is just a sore loser who refuses to accept the will of the majority of the American people. I guess he’s really missing his military days, when he just threatened innocent civilians by holding a gun to their heads according to his cowardly military record. His 15 mins. of fame are up, as all the radical, extreme, fascist Koch funded Teabaggers are learning. I’m sure Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch will find a spot for him on their fear-mongering Fox noise media channel along with Sarah Palin et al – Forward!
Spoken like your typical far left loon liberal. Have you checked Alan Wests military career, in my eyes he’s a hero. Have you ever been in the military fighting for this country, I’m thinking NOT.
Typical of West. He disobeyed orders disgracing himself and his uniform, used his race to wrangle a discharge and retirement , and now when the public throws him out because he is a neo-fascist jerk he tries to blame others for his own shortcomings. Grow up Allen.