Judge to count Palm Beach County votes
By Michael Peltier
The News Service of Florida
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, FL — In a move reminiscent of the 2000 Florida recount, a Leon County circuit judge recently ordered Palm Beach County election officials to send up contested ballots to be recounted in a razor-thin race.
This time, Circuit Judge Terry Lewis will review about 34 absentee ballots from the Democratic primary between state Reps. Jeff Clemens and Mack Bernard in Senate District 27. Clemens was declared the winner of the Palm Beach County district by 17 votes.
Bernard has challenged the outcome, saying that at least 34 absentee ballots and eight provisional ballots were incorrectly discarded. If counted, they would tip the balance in his favor.
Meeting with attorneys and state election officials, Lewis ordered the ballots to be transported to his chambers, where he reviewed the signatures on the ballots to see whether they matched voter registration records.
The three members of the Palm Beach County Canvassing Commission concluded they do not.
The race between Clemens and Bernard in a Democratic stronghold was one of the most hotly contested primaries this year. Also pending in Leon County Circuit Court is a dispute about a close House race in Miami-Dade County between Democratic Reps. Barbara Watson and John Patrick Julien.
Under a Florida law passed after the 2000 presidential re-count, local canvassing commissions are charged with reviewing questionable ballots. If questions are raised about their decisions, a circuit judge is given a very limited scope to review the findings.
If the judge finds that the board’s conclusion rejecting the ballot was reasonable, he is required to let the decision stand.
The lawsuit claims the absentee ballots were improperly rejected by officials who said the signatures on the forms didn’t match. In addition, eight provisional ballots were rejected without informing the voters of that fact.
“This lawsuit is very limited in scope,” said Bernard’s attorney, JC Planas, a former Republican House member. “We are not trying to invalidate any votes nor discard any votes. Quite the opposite, we are asking the court to count certain votes that should not have been rejected.”
Attached to the lawsuit were affidavits from 23 voters who say the signatures on the absentee ballots were their own. Another four eligible voters swore that their provisional ballots were improperly discarded and they were not informed, according to the complaint.
Clemens’ attorney, Ron Meyer, said that he was confident Lewis would validate the canvassing board’s decision.
“They are grasping at straws,” Meyer said of the challenge.
