Ballot counting woes haunt elections office
FORT LAUDERDALE – A ballot counting snafu changed the outcome of at least one race in Tuesday’s primary election and left critics questioning how things were being run at the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office.
Fred Bellis, a spokesman for Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, said Wednesday that nothing was amiss.
But several observers noticed the numbers weren’t adding up on the elections website, with a marked discrepancy between voter turnout and number of votes cast.
“There was a 9,000 difference — voter turnout was higher than votes cast,” said Jason Blank, an attorney representing a judicial candidate who was losing Tuesday night and winning by Wednesday afternoon. “It raised some flags and some concern.”
It was unclear Wednesday how many ballots remained uncounted and how many races they might affect. Snipes and other members of her staff could not be reached for comment despite several calls on Wednesday.
Bellis spoke to the South Florida Sun Sentinel briefly, taking offense when a reporter asked whether 10,000 ballots had been discovered Wednesday morning and had yet to be counted.
“It’s not the truth,” Bellis said after asking where the reporter had gotten the information. Bellis ended the call quickly, saying he had a meeting to attend.
One attorney says Bellis told him Wednesday around noon that 5,000 mail-in ballots had yet to be counted.
Bellis declined to provide more details about those ballots, said Larry Davis, a voter protection attorney for the Florida Democratic Party who observed Tuesday’s count until 10 p.m. at a warehouse in Lauderhill.
Norman Ostrau, a former county attorney who served on the canvassing board Tuesday, said he that after getting a call from the Sun Sentinel, he contacted Bellis and was told there was no problem.
The ballot counting glitch altered the results of at least one race.
Michael Usan, a circuit court judge seeking reelection, went to bed Tuesday night thinking he’d lost the race to challenger Richard Kaplan. But by 4 p.m. Wednesday, he was winning, said Blank, the attorney representing Usan.
The count might also impact a closely watched school board race.
On Tuesday night, school board candidate Donna Korn was holding on to a razor-thin majority needed to avoid a runoff. Korn’s opponents for the countywide seat were 19-year-old Elijah Manley and Ryan Petty, who lost his daughter Alaina in the Stoneman Douglas mass shooting on Feb. 14. “Based on the latest numbers trending upward in my favor, I feel I will win when they officially call the race,” Korn said.
Korn said third-place finisher Elijah Manley reached out to congratulate her, but she hasn’t heard from second place finisher Ryan Petty. Petty could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
As of 6:20 p.m. Wednesday, the elections website said 270,848 ballots had been counted. Votes cast in early voting and on Election Day had been completely reported, but votes by mail had been only partially reported, according to the website.
The glitch irked Lori Parrish, a former property appraiser and county commissioner who spent more than 20 years as a member of the canvassing board that oversees elections in Broward County. “I don’t know how many [votes] are outstanding,” she said.