MANATEE COUNTY – The access code to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections’ tabulation and ballot storage room will be changed to prevent Interim Supervisor James Satcher from entering that room because he is a candidate in the primary election.
The access removal occurred during the Aug. 6 Manatee County canvassing board meeting at the request of congressional candidate Eddie Speir and other meeting attendees. During the meeting, the canvassing board determined the Clear Ballot auditing system Satcher recently purchased will not be used in the primary election, which concludes on Aug. 20 with early voting and mail voting already underway.
ACCESS REMOVED
Speir is running against Vern Buchanan in the 16th congressional district Republican primary. Speir attended the Tuesday morning canvassing board meeting and recapped the meeting in a Facebook reel he posted later that day. In his Facebook reel, Speir expressed concerns about Satcher’s connections to political consultant Anthony Pedicini and a political action committee chaired by Pedicini.
“James Satcher is connected and receiving money from Anthony Pedicini and the developers. Because of that, I’m immediately concerned about access to ballots. James Satcher has already broken rules and protocols that are put in place to ensure the integrity of the election. The tabulation and the ballot storage room are critically important. Nobody’s allowed in there alone, but Satcher said he is allowed to do this.”
While addressing the canvassing board, Speir said, “I request that James Satcher have his access removed from the room. I think that would go a long way to building voter confidence – the same way Mike Bennett did.”
After a brief discussion, Satcher agreed to abide by the same non-access protocols former Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett practiced when he was seeking reelection.
“They’re changing the code so he does not have access to the tabulation room and the ballot storage room and vote by mail. This is huge, thank you very much,” Speir told the board.
CLEAR BALLOT DELAYED
Bennett retired on March 1 with nine months remaining in his four-year term. In April, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Satcher – a sitting county commissioner with no experience supervising an election – to serve the remainder of Bennett’s term. DeSantis chose Satcher over Bennett’s longtime chief of staff, Scott Farrington.
Farrington resigned after Satcher’s appointment but had already launched his election campaign to serve as Bennett’s elected successor. Farrington and Satcher now face each other in the Republican primary that will determine who serves as Supervisor of Elections for the next four years.
On July 25, Satcher issued a press release announcing the purchase of the Clear Ballot audit system.
According to the press release, “A third-party, independent audit of 100% of our election results is going to help secure our elections and increase voter confidence and trust in the election process. The system utilizes high-speed scanners to rescan and tabulate ballots for a comprehensive verification of results, completely independent of the primary voting system.”
The system cost $179,615, plus an additional $25,000 for software.
The canvassing board consists of County Court Judge Melissa Gould, Manatee County Sheriff’s Office General Counsel Eric Werbeck and Bradenton City Councilwoman Lisa Gonzalez Moore. According to the public notice issued in advance of the meeting, the board was to conduct a logic and accuracy test of the tabulating equipment and reporting software to be used during the election, including early voting. Speir videotaped the board meeting and shared some of his footage in a Facebook reel he posted later that day. Speir’s footage included public input given by Farrington.
When addressing the board, Farrington said he hadn’t heard them reference administrative rule 1S-5.026. The rule includes the procedures manual for a post-election certification voting systems audit. It also establishes the requirements and procedures that canvassing board members are to ensure are followed and gives the board the responsibility and authority to decide whether the Clear Ballot system is used.
“I have not heard a motion on whether or not you’d be using this audit system,” Farrington said.
Farrington expressed concerns about the meeting notice not referencing the Clear Ballot system.
“The rule requires the canvassing board to conduct a test of the automated system. I’m unaware that the canvassing board has done so,” Farrington said.
He also said, “I am concerned about the security procedures and whether or not they’ve been updated to accommodate early voting ballots. My understanding is that early voting ballots will be processed on an ongoing process before the end of the election. I believe the security procedures must be changed to accommodate the security of those ballots as they are coming back and the seals are broken and they are processed through the system,” Farrington said.
Speir’s video footage didn’t include the board’s actual vote. When contacted later in the week, Farrington confirmed the board voted 3-0 to not use the Clear Ballot system for the primary election because the public notice for the board meeting didn’t reference it.
“They didn’t look at any of the other things that I mentioned because the notice wasn’t proper for the audit system,” Farrington said.
He also noted the Supervisor of Elections is required to maintain security measures that include the security of early voting ballots as they’re transported, tabulated and stored.
“I could not see where those had been adjusted to accommodate the movement of the ballots that was going to be required for the audit,” Farrington said. “What normally happens is they seal the early voting ballot at the early voting site, transport it back to the elections office and then they’re stored. For the audit, they’re going to have to break that seal, process them through the audit equipment, reseal them and store them. Those are extra steps. I’m not saying it’s impossible to do, I’m just saying the security procedures are supposed to be written so everybody knows what security measures are in place.”
He said he later obtained a copy of the security procedures that had not been adjusted accordingly.
Farrington expects the Clear Ballot system to be used for the general election in November.
“There’s plenty of time for them to do everything properly and use it in the general election. I was not objecting to the use of the Clear Ballot. I was just asking the canvassing board to make sure all the requirements had been met if they were going to use it,” Farrington said.
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