Two Florida elections botched by faulty voting machine software

Recount shows wrong winners declared in two Wellington election races


By JENNIFER SORENTRUE, DARA KAM AND GEORGE BENNETT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 20, 2012


The Palm Beach County elections office declared the wrong winners in two of three Wellington races last week because of an error in the county's vote-tabulating software, Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher said Monday.

The revelation caused political and legal upheaval in the village while again focusing an unwelcome elections spotlight on the county infamous for the 2000 "butterfly ballot" and as a prominent battleground in the fight over paperless electronic voting machines.

Wellington candidates Al Paglia and Shauna Hostetler were declared winners of March 13 council races, and the results were certified to the state on Friday. But the elections office said Monday night that those results were wrong and in fact Paglia got fewer votes than incumbent Matt Willhite while Hostetler was edged by John Greene.

Additionally, the elections office said that what had appeared to be a blowout victory for challenger Bob Margolis over Mayor Darell Bowen was in fact much closer. Margolis was thought to have received 58 percent of the vote, but he actually got 50.6 percent.

Because the erroneous vote totals have been certified, Willhite and Greene may have to go to court to overturn the results, Wellington Village Attorney Jeff Kurtz said. It's not clear whether the new officials can be seated when new terms are scheduled to begin next week.

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