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News-Journal
Online
Rights group
sues over election results
By James
Miller, Staff Writer
November 24,
2004
DELAND --
The aftermath of the general election in Volusia County grew more tangled
Tuesday, as a local voting rights advocate sued to throw out the results.
The suit,
filed by DeLeon Springs resident Susan Pynchon, targets the race for supervisor
of elections, alleging that former County Councilwoman Ann McFall's victory was
based on "inadequate and incomplete information regarding election
results."
While the
suit focuses on the most prominent countywide race, it asks that all general
election results in the county be set aside.
"What
happens (if) that election is set aside, whether there's another election,
we'll have to wait and cross that bridge when we come to it," said
attorney Daniel Vaughen of DeLand, who filed the suit in circuit court in
DeLand.
The suit
comes one day too late to meet a state law requiring that such complaints be
filed within 10 days of an election's certification, but Vaughen says an
exception should be made in part because of delays in getting records from the
Volusia County Department of Elections.
Late
Tuesday, McFall, who prevailed by a 51.6 percent to 48.4 percent margin, lashed
out at her opponent in the race, County Councilwoman Pat Northey, saying the
suit "looks and smells like sour grapes to me."
Northey said
Pynchon had contacted her, but she had not endorsed the lawsuit. She declined
to comment on McFall's belief that she was involved.
Pynchon, who
recently helped found an organization called Florida Fair Elections Coalition,
said she sued because of concerns about how election records were handled. She
acknowledged that she had been active with the Democratic Party but said her
group is nonpartisan.
In part, her
suit's claims are based on records Supervisor of Elections Deanie Lowe provided
last week to Black Box Voting, a national elections watchdog group that is
focusing one of several potential fraud probes on Volusia County.
Pynchon and
Bev Harris, Black Box Voting's executive director, say copies of voting machine
tapes they received last week are incomplete for 59 precincts. The tapes --
receipt-like records -- are one of several issues raised in the lawsuit.
"At
this point, we're (Pynchon and her attorney) not accusing anyone of
fraud," Pynchon said. "At the very least, I would say there's been
gross negligence and ineptitude."
Harris said
Black Box Voting played no part in the suit other than providing information.
Regardless
of the lawsuit, Harris said her group will ask for public inspection of the
ballots from the 59 precincts. Harris is being shadowed by documentary
filmmakers. Although they have met before, Lowe declined to meet with Harris on
Tuesday with filmmakers present.
"I'm
not here to be part of a circus and a bunch of inferences and
insinuations," Lowe said.
She said she
would conduct a public recount if Harris asks and might conduct her own, just
to set the record straight.
Lowe
acknowledged that her office mistakenly provided incomplete copies of voting
machine tapes from 10 precincts to Black Box Voting. Poll workers' signatures
were cut off during photocopying, she said. But while Lowe said there might
have been other errors in copying, she tersely rebutted suggestions of more
serious problems.
"I
think they're totally wrong," Lowe said. "There was no negligence and
there was certainly no fraud."
james.miller@news-jrnl.com
© 2004
News-Journal Corporation. ® www.news-journalonline.com
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