UPDATED --St. Lucie County has reached the noon deadline to certify its election results without certifying the results.
But that hasnt stopped Democrat Patrick Murphy from once again declaring victory, with U.S. Rep. Allen West sending attorneys to St. Lucie County court to seek an emergency hearing on the noon deadline, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Under Florida law, if the deadline passes with final certified results, the unofficial certified results filed last Sunday stand, the Post reported. Those results show Murphy ahead by 0.58 percent -- above the 0.5 percent spread which would trigger an automatic recount."
The St. Lucie County supervisor of elections office had restarted the first-five-days recount from early voting in the Congressional District 18 contest at 8 a.m. Sunday.
The county canvassing board, which had narrowly ordered the recount in the contest between Murphy and U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, had halted the process of running the ballots through the tabulating machines late Saturday night to give county officials a rest.
A judge had rejected Murphy's request to block St. Lucie County from running all five days of the early voting ballots, according to the Post.
The state election team doing an audit on the flawed Congressional District 18 election results in St. Lucie County involving Republican Congressman Allen West and Murphy has found 306 uncounted ballots. The ballots had contained write-ins that caused tabulating machines to reject them.
Though a recount is under way for the first five days of the eight-day early voting period, an attorney for Murphy, the declared winner by a razor-thin margin, had announced earlier Saturday that he filed an injunction to halt the count.It was that injunction request that was turned down.
Members of the U.S. House Administration Committee are on hand from Washington, D.C., to watch the proceedings.
The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board agreed late Friday to the recount. The ballots from the last three days of early voting, run through the tabulating machine for a second time on Nov. 10, found discrepancies and altered the vote count.
Meanwhile, embattled Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker has beenadmitted to a hospital for unknown testing.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
Post.
The state election team doing an audit on the flawed Congressional District 18 election results in St. Lucie County involving Republican Congressman Allen West and Murphy has found 306 uncounted ballots. The ballots had contained write-ins that caused tabulating machines to reject the ballots.
Though a recount is under way for the first five days of the eight-day early voting period, an attorney for Murphy, the declared winner by a razor-thin margin, had announced earlier Saturday that he filed an injunction to halt the count, according to the Palm Beach Post.It was that injunction request that was turned down.
Members of the U.S. House Administration Committee are on hand from Washington, D.C., to watch the proceedings.
The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board agreed late Friday to the recount. The ballots from the last three days of early voting, run through the tabulating machine for a second time on Nov. 10, found discrepancies and altered the vote count.
A St. Lucie County Circuit Court judge on Fridayrejected a request from U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, to run all eight days of early voting through the tabulating machines based on state law.
Meanwhile, embattled Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker has been admitted to a hospital for unknown testing.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
