With U.S. Rep. Allen West refusing to concede defeat in the Congressional District 18 race, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry isnt waiting for a court hearing to determine if St. Lucie County should recount all the early votes.
Curry has issued a call for besieged Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker to rerun through the tabulating machines all eight days of St. Lucie early voting ballots in the disputed contest.
"RPOF has been monitoring the results in St. Lucie since Election Night. With Allen West down by only 1,900 votes, and gaining more than 500 votes in just a partial recount, it would be unconscionable not to count the remaining votes, Curry stated in a release.
"The supervisor of elections owes it to the people who elected her to count all of the votes that were cast early in the 2012 election cycle. She has already admitted there was a problem with the counting process and announced she would count all the votes. It makes no sense to arbitrarily cut off the counting process before it was finished."
Currys demand comes as West will get a two-hour hearing Friday before St. Lucie County Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn on his lawsuit seeking a full recount of all eight days of early voting.
West has called a post-election recounting of just the final three days of early voting -- 16,275 ballots -- a sham and filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Walker and Secretary of State Ken Detzner, demanding that all eight days of early voting -- 37,379 ballots -- be recounted.
The refeed reduced Democrat Patrick Murphys Election Night victory by 535 votes to a 1,907 vote margin, a 0.58 percent margin in Murphys favor.
Walker has admitted that "mistakes were made" Election Night as workers hastily uploaded results from the final three days of early voting.But she has expressed confidence that the vote tallies were corrected upon a refeed of the ballots from the final three days of early voting through the machines on Saturday.
Murphy and the Florida Democratic Party have declared victory.
A three-day audit is now under way by a three-member team from the Division of Elections Bureau of Voting Systems Certification to examine the election process, including how the votes were tabulated and how the equipment operated.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
