Florida Election Results 2012: Allen West Decries Voter Fraud in Florida, And He is Right

In an earlier article I referred to Congressman Lt. Colonel Allen West (R-Fla.) as a “wing nut.” He is a hero and a patriot. I apologize for that remark. He has referred to black Democrats as victims and slaves. He has said the House of Representatives is filled with communists posing as Democrats. I am not a slave, I am not enslaved, I am not a victim, and I am not a communist. I am a liberal and I am not a fan of Republican Congressman Allen West of Florida.

There were three incumbent congresspersons that I especially wanted defeated this year, Joe Walsh of Illinois, Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Allen West of Florida. There was one Republican that I wanted to win this year, Mia Love of Utah. Unfortunately, I batted .500, two out of four. Walsh and Love were defeated, Bachmann survived a close race and West appears to have lost a crooked election.

West, who is the incumbent, has refused to concede defeat to Patrick Murphy for the right to represent Florida’s 18th Congressional District. West has documented a number of improprieties and questionable, if not shaky and illegal maneuvers by the Democratic Party to prevent him from retaining his seat. As bad as I wanted Allen West to lose, it diminishes the voting franchise, the Democratic Party and the government for him to lose this way. West is being denied his opportunity to resume his position in Congress and evidence is mounting that the Democratic Party officials are involved in a massive voter fraud campaign.

In Florida a recount is automatically declared if the margin of victory is .5% or less. The original count for the election had West losing by .74%.  The Washington Times said that “On election night incumbent Republican Allen West had maintained a district-wide lead of nearly 2,000 votes until Democratic St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker inexplicably ‘recounted’ thousands of early ballots, resulting in a 4,400 vote shift to the challenger.”

The West campaign immediately started citing numerous irregularities in the vote counting process and refused to concede the race. West filed an injunction seeking to impound voting machines and requesting a hand count of votes in Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties. Those requests were refused by the courts. The Boston Herald indicated that Palm Beach Circuit Judge David Crow felt that “the court had no authority to overrule election procedures that are in place and being followed.”

The first irregularity occurred when observers were not permitted as per the law to “oversee the count of absentee ballots, those damaged by voting machines, and ballots in which the three pages have become separated,” according to the Washington Times. Additionally, “8,000 military absentee ballots were being counted in an area off-limits to observers.” Democratic Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher and staff were observed being noticeably uncooperative and hostile to individuals trying to observe the counting of the votes. Bucher has also been accused of voter suppression by the Washington Times. “When responding to a court order to open polls to early voters on the Sunday before the election, she only informed local Democrats. Republicans only heard about it later and not from her” said the Washington Times.

On Saturday, November 11th, the West campaign won a challenge to have a full recount of early ballots cast on Nov 1 through Nov 3. Citing “election-day problems with the vote count  among the early votes, including possible duplicate vote counts or over-counting, the St. Lucie County Canvassing Board agreed to an entire early-voting recount” stated the Washington Times.

The West campaign also complained that “in some precincts of St. Lucie County there appear to be dozens more ballots being counted than the number of voters” explained the Washington Times. West asked Walker for an audit of the poll books to reconcile the discrepancy in the voter count. According to the Washington Times, Walker “has hired an attorney and gone to ground.”

On Sunday, November 12, election officials informed observers that they would not recount all of the 37,000 votes. Citing Florida law, the officials pointed out only the ballots that were in question, the 16,275 ballots cast between Nov 1 and 3 would be re-seeded through the voting machines. 800 fewer votes were counted and as the Washington Times pointed out “there is no way to confirm that the errors were limited only to ballots cast on those days.” The paper went on to say “that election officials threw out 5% of the first batch of reseeded ballots, the remaining 20,000 should be recounted in the interests of accuracy.”

The situation has gotten so bad and is so egregiously and grossly mismanaged that “Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner has decided to send auditors to St. Lucie County” according to a letter written by the West campaign and posted on the American Thinker. In that letter West pointed out that Walker admitted during a press conference that “approximately 3,650 ballots were double-counted on election night, and approximately 1,950 ballots were not counted at all.” West pointed out that according to Walker’s numbers the voting count should have decreased by 1,700 votes but it was reported to decrease by only 799 votes. The American Thinker reprint of the letter said that Walker’s office reportedly “announced her office re-ran some 26,000 ballots from the first six days of early voting.” However this conflicts with what was reported on election night that involved 13,000 votes from the first three days of early voting. In addition the website says that Walker said there were mechanical malfunctions associated with “blank” memory cards. It was suggested that if the machine malfunctions were associated with the 26,000 votes then parts of this total could have been triple -counted.

After the recount, Murphy still had a lead of .57% (too high for an automatic recount). West challenged to have a full recount in court citing misconduct and/or fraud. On Friday morning, St. Lucie Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn rejected West’s “request for a recount of all ballots cast early” reported the Associated Press. The judge said he had “no authority to order a recount and that West's campaign could contest the election if they are unsatisfied with its results” explained the Associated Press.

The West campaign has not exhausted their options. Late Friday evening, Newsmax reported that the “Florida Division of Elections on Friday stepped in to recommend that the St. Lucie County Canvassing Board recount all eight days of early voting — 37,379 ballots.” But it appears that there are still some indiscretions being unearthed. Newsmax reports that there “at least 304 early ballots missing.” Walker again appears to be in the center of this latest controversy. Walker’s lawyer told the Palm Beach Post that “missing ballots are believed to be in a box in Walker’s office.” The Palm Beach Post stated that the canvassing board in a split decision has agreed to recount all the 37,379 early votes on Saturday.

Post on Politics noted that west has a pending decision in front of the Palm Beach Court to extend the recount to include 37,000 absentee ballots. The website reported that the amended complaint is based on West’s belief “that in some precincts, the number of absentee votes recorded exceeds the number of voters who are listed as casting absentee ballots.”

The Palm Beach Post noted that “the head of the Florida Division of Elections Bureau of Voting Systems Certifications, David Drury, and two other Division of Elections officials have been monitoring the St Lucie County election office” ever since West requested assistance from the Secretary of State. The paper said officials from the canvassing board said “We have the responsibility to try to restore trust in an elections process that’s been shrouded with uncertainty.”

Democrats have cried foul. Congresspersons Wasserman-Shultz and Alcee Hastings have both accused Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott of influencing his appointee Secretary of State Detzner to intercede in the voting controversy. They have also come out in defense of Walker. Hastings’ told the Sun-Sentinel “Governor Rick Scott’s attempt to undermine and pressure St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker – just because he would prefer to keep Allen West in Congress – is yet another blatant display of his willingness to disregard the rule of law for political gain.” Wasserman-Schultz followed Hastings’ comment by saying “Governor Scott is now trying to blatantly overturn an election result he disagreed with and undermine Gertrude Walker, a three-decade veteran of the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections office.”

Wasserman-Schultz and Hastings are barking up the wrong tree. This is a blatant example of mismanagement and/or incompetency at the least and voter fraud at the worse. Chris Cate, spokesman for Detzner, told the Sun-Sentinel, “We have a responsibility to ensure Florida’s election laws are interpreted and enforced properly, and our involvement has only been observational.”

In the meantime, Patrick Murphy has become the transition to Congress. The latest revised count has Murphy leading by 1,907 votes and his margin of victory is .58%, still too high for an automatic recount. He has attended the orientation programs in Washington, DC and is moving forward expecting to be declared the official winner. “All counties must file certified election results with the state by noon Sunday. West can formally contest the election after that” said the Daily News. “The state Elections Canvassing Commission will certify final results next Tuesday, Nov 20” said the Palm Beach Post. Murphy’s attorney’s has threatened to seek injunctive relief if the canvassing board moves forward with the recount.

The congressional race in Florida was the country’s most expensive House race according to the Washington Times. West is one of only two black Republicans in Congress. He is a favorite of the Tea Party and was ushered in as part of the Republican wave of 2010. West is a TV favorite as much for his background as his flamboyant and over the top rhetoric. West once said that the Democratic leadership including President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Democrat National Committee Debbie Wasserman-Schultz should “get the hell out of the USA.”

In an interesting twist, West was invited by the Georgia Republican Party to move back to his native Atlanta and run for office there as a consolation prize according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Sue Everhart, chairman of the Georgia Republican party told the paper “I would be glad to have him come back to Georgia and at some point run here. He ran as a Republican, a conservative Republican.” West politely turned down the invitation said the paper. “It’s a very nice thing, but I’m not an NFL free agent.”

Some may wonder how come black organizations like the NAACP and leader s like Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson haven’t come to the defense of West. It is because West called them communists and slaves. He is Harriet Tubman let him save himself. The liberal mainstream press hasn’t carried this story widely or persistently. Then again, the conservative media is not carrying it widely either. I found three articles on Drudge Report, three on Breitbart and two on the Daily Caller. That is unfortunate because this is certainly newsworthy and the Florida voting process is a mess. I lay that blame at the foot of Governor Rick Scott. I am a liberal and a voter rights advocate. I want Allen West to lose. Badly. But I want democracy to win even more. Allen West is being robbed. Someone call the authorities.