Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher has a strict rule that she is the only person in her office allowed to speak to the media. But reporters have typically found her difficult to reach, and to talk to. This video will give you a glimpse as to why.
After a long day overseeing the recording of ballots not yet counted — including critical votes cast in the Congressional District 18 race pitting Allen West against Patrick Murphy — Bucher tried to sneak in a break outside the Riviera Beach vote tabulation center.
Irritated at being disturbed and questioned for a response, Bucher refused to answer BPR reporter Michele Kirk’s request for a comment during her break — or after. Instead, Bucher walked abruptly away, calling Kirk disrespectful for approaching the public official to speak to her, telling her to ‘”leave now.’
Bucher was equally dismissive on Sunday when asked about why she decided not to notify party officials or candidates about her decision to extend early voting, hurrying off into a back room where the media was barred.
Despite the public’s hunger for information on the West race and other election issues, Bucher has been criticized for withholding information from Republican leaders and conservative media.
Elections offices under scrutiny for handling of Allen West ballots
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Many high ranking women in the Republican Party support Susan Bucher.
Name some
Right on, good comment
Susan Bucher has been working day and night, seven days a week, for months now – she was entitled to take a short break!! The reporter was totally out of line – to call that encounter rude on Susan’s part is not accurate reporting – anyone watching that video would plainly see that Susan tried countless times to have this reporter leave her be for a few minutes during a much deserved short break.
I have seen what Susan Bucher does to the press while I was volunteering. She literally will not let anyone else in the entire staff talk to media and then she dodges them over and over again. When she is forced to answer she does it in a hostile way. When it comes to the press she is either “too busy working” or “on break”. That doesn’t leave any public time at all does it? The reporter was polite. She could have said, “let me finish my break and I will give you a statement” but she was her typical rude self and gave no information. We deserve better than that. It is her job. If she doesn’t have time, she should appoint a staff person to keep the public updated!
If she can’t take the heat…. maybe she should get out of the kitchen!!!! The rep[orter was not disrespectful in any way!!! She was dooing her job!!!
THE “POS” stupidvisor CAN TAKE A BREAK IN THE OUTHOUSE WHERE SHE BELONGS !!!
Susan, answer some questions. Defend yourself, or are you trying to hide something? If I were you, I’d be defending my name “break” or not.
Susan Bucher is a partisan and a criminal. What she is doing is against the law and she needs to be prosecuted for it. Changing ballots? Only notifying Democrats of early voting. Throwing away military absentee ballots? Absolutely criminal and yet so very typical of a Democrat. This just goes to show how the Democrat party is a threat to our Republic. They are just so sure of the justness of their cause that they do anything, no matter how immoral or illegal, to win. Republicans need to start fighting back hard against this type of Demothugery.
You’re correct. The Democrat Party is a criminal organization, and they have no shame at all about cheating in order to win. (Eric Holder as the nation’s chief law enforcer? Oh please.) I will never, ever vote for any Democrat again.
It doesn’t matter what YOU vote. It is the thief counting the votes that matters.
There is no excuse for her being rude to a journalist. Bucher is CORRUPT!
This person is an elected official in a public office. She works for the people of Palm Beach County. A big part of her responsibility is to answer to the the people of this county, no matter who they are (a layman or a reporter). Shame on her! If you want a privacy, you shouldn’t be in public office.
Since when does the Supervisor of Elections get a break on electin day? There are a lot of work days during the rest of the year when she can take a break. She was probably taking a break when they printed the absentee ballotts. Oh, I forgot, Susan said they were printed by a outside source not her people.
As a Republican, I support Susan as she is a good honest person unlike the last Supervisor of Elections, Anderson.
@Phil. If she is honest and good why won’t she talk to the press?
Yeh Phil is a Republican who of course lives of the public dole getting his pension in his 40s and as a good union member votes a straight left wing ticket. After a hard life of sleeping in his patrol car after spending some time giving out tickets to people getting to work to pay the taxes to support Phil
Zing!! 10 points for Michael!!
And I should believe this when there are mounting “irregularities” in the vote count in S.FL counties showing consistent incompetence.
This is what’s wrong with our politics today.there sholud be a press conference where she ahold give information.she is employed by the citizens not a party or a company.usually when people hide it’s because thet are hiding something or they are ashamed of what they have done.that’s why Obama and ms Clinton hide and refuse to answer questions.if people are appalled they should bevappalled at govt officials that lie or refuse to answer the questions.
First, Michelle Kirk is a mindless, rude, Nazi jerk. Second, Michelle Kirk is so far away from being a reporter it’s ridiculous. She has a smartphone and thinks that makes her a reporter. She can’t write, she can’t research stories, she can’t ask intelligent questions. Third, is this crap all you losers can come up with after the election?
Yeah, you’re not a bigot, huh? Yes, that was sarcasm, NAZI.
Susan Bucher has a track record of walking away from the media and from not talking to the media. Her employees when you ask them simple questions such as “is the line closed and what time did it close” answer you with “Are you media?” Wow, what are you hiding or afraid of that you can’t answer simple questions? She should have daily press conferences or briefings. She is an elected and public official with a responsibility to the voters. She openly hugged Democrat volunteers at an early voting site and did not even speak to or acknowledge the republican volunteers. Observers on site at the EOC have said you can “feel the hostility”. Is this okay just because she has had no sleep and works hard? I don’t think so… it’s her job, do it with respect towards the media and others or step aside.
@LawBear I just don’t understand why you have resorted to picking on the reporter. Bucher has some serious allegations to respond to. Why are you calling those questioning the veracity of her office “losers”?
@Kathy….sorry, I seriously doubt Michele Kirk should identify herself as a “reporter”. I mean, come on. You might as well allow Javi from ‘The Shark Tank’ a reporter too! I know that many on here (Michele Kirk included) do not like ‘The Shark Tank’ and would not consider Javi a reporter either. So why is it any different when the tables are turned? Fair is fair.
Michele, you are a “Blogger”… NOT a reporter. You need to get a degree in Journalism and Broadcasting before you can call yourself a reporter. True it may not carry much weight when approaching someone. If she would have said to Susan Bucher … “I’m obviously a Blogger” … well you can see how that sounds. Watch your local news. It’s unprofessional for a ‘real’ reporter to respond back to someone they are interviewing with any animosity. A ‘real’ reporter has to come across as UNBIASED. But a BLOGGER….however….can do what you did today Michele.
Very well said Bob. Identifying her as a reporter just shows the true nature of this so called “media outlet”. In reality, it’s the Ministry of Propaganda for the fascist right wing,
Fascist Right Wing? LOL. GET AN EDUCATION DUDE!
@Bob – so you have to have a degree in Journalism and Broadcasting before being a reporter? So Sanjay Gupta isn’t qualified to be a reporter in your book? Elizabeth Cohen, she’s not qualified to call herself a reporter? Peter Jennings, not qualified? Helen Thomas, not qualified? Al Hunt, not qualified? Katie Couric? David Gregory? And I’m not even touching the Sports Beat. So a real reporter has to come across as Unbiased in order to be a real reporter? Dan Rather, Helen Thomas, Soledad O’Brien, most of the staff at Fox News – all unbiased huh? Look at local news and it’s improper to show any sort of animosity – so 60 minutes and pretty much the entire field of investigative journalism is illegitimate according to you? Then there’s the whole blogger thing – so Bloggers aren’t legit or qualified to cover news? Hmm, did you ever hear of JournoList? Seems like there were quite a few very prominent names as part of it. What about both the DNC and RNC specifically holding conference calls and specifically inviting several bloggers to attend and cover the conventions, and I’ll emphasize this – by giving them PRESS Passes. You and LawBear seem to be missing a pretty fundamental point – Two people can both be wrong at the same time. No, honest, they can be. In this case, you seem to be implying that Michelle Kirk somehow misrepresented herself but it’s quite clear that Bucher knows her and knows she’s a blogger. It might have been a little of rude for Michelle to approach her on a break, but Bucher’s response was far from appropriate. As a public official, people have every right to show up at a public office and ask simple questions – and I don’t just mean Mrs Kirk, I mean a maid, a janitor, some guy with no college degree, some lady who just passed her GED and any other TaxPayer who’s paying Bucher’s salary. Attacking the source is not a defense either – by your logic, if some complete jerk were to ask Richard Nixon questions, Nixon’s behavior would somehow be ok. I’m not even a supporter or fan of Mrs Kirk but can’t believe you or LawBear justify a public official showing that degree of contempt to a taxpayer. I guess elections director or whatever her official title is makes someone a superior human being and makes them better than the rest of us. And by simply earning a Journalism degree you somehow become a superhuman being and are immune to emotions and behaviors we mere mortals suffer. Seriously, everything you wrote is demonstrably false and silly
Awesome analysis, Brother.
This comment makes more sense than anything I have read so far, good job…..
It’s absurd to think you need a degree in “Journalism and Broadcasting” in order to be a reporter, i.e. someone who reports on events. J-schools these days mainly teach people how to be loyal Dem-left propagandists who totally abdicate their responsibility when it comes to reporting the crimes and scandals of Democrats, and then spend weeks pounding away at non-scandals and malicious rumors and lies about Republicans. People who rely on credentialed journalists are ignorant about who Barack Obama really is and what he’s actually doing to the country. They don’t know that he’s at the root of the mortgage crisis. They don’t know that his mentor was a Stalinist. They don’t know that Obama was a hardcore revolutionary Marxist in college and that he has never given any indication of rethinking his aims – only his means.