An audit of how St. Lucie County conducted its general election, anticipated for a couple of weeks, is due later this month.
Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, whose re-election relied upon returns in St. Lucie as well as Martin and Palm Beach counties, already believes the contest was botched from the very beginning.
Negron said he is anxious to see what the Department of State audit team found beyond what has already been acknowledged.
The tabulating machines were set up incorrectly, which resulted in precincts reporting more than 100 percent turnout. The county had a two-page ballot and the machines counted each piece of paper as coming from different voters.
During early voting, precincts were double-counted, while others were missed.
Im waiting for the report, but this is undisputed. They found 320-something votes, Negron said. I dont know where they were, but they were lost.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner sent the inspection team to the county as the ballots were being refed into tabulating machines the week after the election and the Congressional District 18 contest between U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, and Democrat Patrick Murphy of Jupiter, remained undecided.
Chris Cate, spokesman for Detzner, said Thursday the report will come out this month.
Wests team has called the atmosphere in the office chaotic.
State Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, has called the handling of the election under the watch of longtime Supervisor Gertrude Walker a disaster.
Negron, who was left facing the crowd as West remained in his room on Election Night at the Hutchinson Island Marriott, commended the efforts of election workers as they spent hours trying to refeed ballots through the tabulators in a vain attempt to have firm numbers in time for the state-required deadline to submit official results.
But while hes confident of the election results for his race, because of St. Lucie County the final numbers may always remain in doubt.
My race had three different numbers, Negron said. Do I think they got the outcomes correct? Probably. But do I have confidence that the number for my election was accurate? I dont. I think its close.
Detzner and an elections team will travel next week to supervisors' offices in counties that have received more than their share of attention after the general election: Lee, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and St. Lucie.
The meetings are in part a fact-finding effort to discover what happened to create long lines -- producing four-hour wait times -- or other Election Night counting problems.
Traveling with the secretary will be the assistant secretary of state/chief of staff, the acting general counsel, the Voter Registration Services Bureau chief, the Voting Systems Certification Bureau chief and an additional employee from the Voting Systems Certification Bureau.
The following schedule has been released for his meetings:
Monday: Hillsborough County meeting ends at 5 p.m.
Tuesday: Lee County meeting ends at 11 a.m.; Miami-Dade County meeting ends at 5 p.m.
Wednesday: Broward County meeting ends at 11 a.m.; Palm Beach County meeting ends at 5 p.m.
Thursday: Meeting in St. Lucie County ends at 11 a.m.
Detzner said Tuesday that Hillsborough County didnt have problems encountered in the other counties, but he wants to use the county so he can set benchmarks for what he expects from the others.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
