Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Supervisor of elections:
Voters want newcomer as supervisor, pick Link to lead in Palm Beach
Broward voters decided Tuesday they wanted generational change. In Palm Beach County, voters decided to give the appointed supervisor of elections, Wendy Sartory Link, a full fouryear term in the office.
After decades of major election embarrassments and minor election snafus that left many wondering about the security and safety of balloting, Broward voters decided Tuesday they wanted generational change.
But almost three hours after the polls closed, it wasn’t clear exactly who would represent that generational change.
Joe Scott and Chad Klitzman were in a too-close-to-call race for the top spot in a six-candidate race for the Democratic nomination for the job. Ironically, given the job they’re seeking, the Scott-Klitzman race could be headed toward a recount.
They were separated by 0.22% of the vote shortly before 10 p.m. If it remains less than 0.5%, Florida law provides for a machine recount, which involves rescanning the ballots.
After a machine recount, if the winning margin is equal to or less than 0.25% of the total votes, a hand recount is conducted.
Though the winner officially faces a Republican opponent in November, the county is so overwhelmingly Democratic that the primary winner is virtually guaranteed to the four-year term.
In Palm Beach County, voters decided to give the appointed supervisor of elections, Wendy Sartory Link, a full four-year term in the office. Link decisively defeated Paulette Armstead in the Democratic primary. Because no one came forward to run in November, the primary Tuesday makes Link the new supervisor
Neither Klitzman, 26, nor Scott, 38, has ever run for office before. Either one would become the youngest countywide elected official, by far.
In Broward, two well-known veterans of Broward politics were defeated: Mitch Ceasar, who was looking to cap off a long political career, and Jennifer Gottlieb, who was looking to make a political comeback after serving years ago on the county School Board.
“The Democratic voters came out and vote for change. They came out and vote for a fresh face to lead our election system. They didn’t want people who had been part of the political establishment in the past,” Scott said in a telephone interview.
Turnover in the elections offices is extraordinarily unusual. Palm Beach County had only three supervisors of elections in the 22 years before Link was appointed in 2019. In Broward, there were only three different supervisors of elections in the 50 years before Antonacci was appointed in 2018.
Change in the offices began after the 2018 midterm elections, which were marked by turmoil as vote counting dragged on and the pace of recounts was glacial.
Palm Beach County didn’t finish recounting votes from the Nov. 6, 2018, election until after Christmas. In Broward, the elections Canvassing Board was told 11 days after the election that 2,040 ballots had gone missing, and were likely somewhere in Elections Office
vote-counting building.
Brenda Snipes, who was Broward supervisor of elections, resigned, but then-Gov. Rick Scott suspended her before she was ready to leave, appointing Peter Antonacci to replace her. He did not run for a full term.
Scott’s successor, Gov. Ron DeSantis, suspended Palm Beach County’s supervisor of elections, Susan Bucher, in January 2019, and appointed Link to take over.
The duties of the supervisor of elections are complex, and almost everything they do and don’t do is spelled out in state law.
Though the jobs are critically important — and when something goes wrong it proves embarrassing for residents of the affected counties — Tuesday’s elections were relatively low profile.
Broward Democratic voters got plenty of election advertising in their mailboxes — the candidates collectively raised and spent more than $700,000 — they were overshadowed by other countywide races. (One billionaire donor gave more than that to support one candidate for sheriff and another billionaire donor gave more than that to a single candidate for state attorney.)
Scott of Parkland doesn’t have political or local government experience. But the West Point graduate and combat veteran who received the Bronze Star said his time in South Korea as a battalion logistics officer for the Army, gave him experience coordinating complicated government functions. He’s currently an accounts manager for a multinational technology company. Scott raised $99,000.
Scott said he hoped the final results would produce result in a victory. He said he was overwhelmed by the support he received from Democratic primary voters.
“I am deeply grateful and honored to have the trust of the people of Broward County to be their supervisor of elections. I want to thank everyone who worked hard to make this happen, everyone who voted for me.”
He said his mission as supervisor of elections would be to protect people’s votes, no matter who they vote for.
Klitzman, of Weston, is a lawyer. He was president of Kids Voting Broward, interned at the White House, and worked for a prestigious New York law firm.
Klitzman was the best financed candidate in the race. His campaign committee raised $164,500. He also had a political committee, Voters For Orderly And Transparent Elections, which got most of its $84,000 from Klitzman and a company associated with his family.
Going into the race, Ceasar and Gottlieb were the best known candidates. The winner will face Republican Catherine McBreen in November.
Ceasar, 66, of Plantation, is a lawyer who spent 20 years as chairman of the Broward Democratic Party. He unsuccessfully sought the nomination for clerk of courts in 2016. Ceasar raised $179,500.
Gottlieb, 48, of Hollywood, was a member of the School Board from 2006 until she resigned in 2011. The School Board at the time was under intensive scrutiny and a grand jury found widespread mismanagement and corruption. Gottlieb was never charged with wrongdoing, and in the campaign for elections supervisor cited her background on the School Board as a credential. Ceasar and Gottlieb had endorsements from many Democratic elected officials.
She’s also been a legislative aide and campaign political director. Gottlieb raised $96,800.
The other candidates:
■ Ruth Carter-Lynch of Lauderhill, a consultant and former vice chairwoman of the Broward Democratic Party, who had run unsuccessfully for office several times before, including two campaigns for School Board. She raised $45,600.
■ Tim Lonergan, a member of the Oakland Park City Commission who is a manager in the insurance industry. Term limits prevented Lonergan from seeking another term on the Oakland Park commission, so he’ll be leaving office after the November elections. Lonergan raised $50,300.
Link previously served on the state university system’s Board of Governors, as a trustee of Palm Beach State College, and on the board of the Economic Council of the Palm Beaches, where she was chairwoman.
Link, of North Palm Beach, was a Republican when DeSantis appointed her, and she didn’t plan to run for a term in the job. She later decided to run — and became a Democrat to run in majorityDemocratic Palm Beach County.
She said she discovered a passion for the job and became so involved in trying to improve the office that she decided to seek a full term in the job.
Armstead, of West Palm Beach, was a candidate for state representative in 2016 and 2018 in Broward County.