Putting numbers together...August 26th Election in Lake Worth...Questions Remain

Up until now, these are the numbers we are seeing on the Supervisor of Elections website related to the Lake Worth 2020 bond issue.

The margin is 26 votes, with the "Against Bonds" ahead.

The numbers above are before "provisional" ballots. The Canvassing Board met on Wednesday, the day after the election. There were 231 provisional ballots cast Countywide. I understand that there were 31 cast in Lake Worth. Here is what the State of Florida Division of Elections website says about provisional ballots:

Notice that if you submit a provisional ballot, you are to receive a written notice of your rights as a provisional ballot voter. It goes on to say that you have 2 days after the election to bring in additional evidence that would prove that your ballot should be counted. That would have been by Thursday at 5 p.m. and this information would have (or should have) been given to you if you cast a provisional ballot. Here is more on provisional ballots from the same website:

Again, there is mention of the "Notice of Rights" that you were given if you voted through a provisional ballot. Please contact me at wesblackman@gmail.com if you voted provisionally and let me know, so that others can know, if you received this "Notice of Rights."

The Canvassing Board, the body charged with determining which provisional ballots are counted and which are not, met on Wednesday, August 27, 2014 beginning at 1:30 p.m. This is 27 1/2 hours before the deadline by which people can submit additional information and evidence to support whether their provisional ballot will be counted. By 7:17 p.m. we were told through the news media that the provisional ballots had been reviewed and that there would be no recount in the Lake Worth race.

The Canvassing Board met two days too early. The earliest they should have met would have been Friday at 8 a.m.

There was a 26 vote difference and a 15 vote difference would have triggered an automatic recount.

Of the 231 provisional ballots submitted countywide, 91 were discarded. In Lake Worth, there were over 30 provisional ballots and only 5 were counted. That translates to 61% of the provisional ballots being approved countywide and 16% being approved in Lake Worth. Why such a drastic difference between the county and the city? Were people given their "Notice of Rights" about the possibility of additional information being provided prior to the deadline? Why did the Canvassing Board meet two days early and how could they make decisions regarding whether or not to count provisional ballots when additional information was still allowed to come in?

The Supervisor of Elections Office offers this page on their website that you can check to see whether your provisional ballot was counted. People were told on Thursday that they could call 656-6200 (SOE's office) to see if their ballot was counted on Wednesday, but not offered the opportunity to provide additional documentation as afforded by state law. This was only to check to see if it had been counted, by a decision made the day before. I heard reports that people were given the run around when they called the number.

For the record, the final count according to the SOE, after accepting those 5 provisional ballots, results in 1545 FOR BONDS and 1570 AGAINST BONDS.