Palm Beach Election Nightmare Finally Over After 7th Recount

In John Gideon's Daily News today, he says the Palm Beach County Florida nightmare is FINALLY over.  I can't say it better than John, and frankly it was getting WAY too confusing, so here's John: 

"The election nightmare may be over in Palm Beach Co Florida. After seven
recounts, machine and hand, the election for a county circuit court seat
has been certified. The losing candidate, of course, is considering
legal actions. Still not explained is how ballots were lost then found
and how the machines just couldn’t seem to get an accurate count.
Sequoia should have some explaining to do beyond just “No, no, no, it
wasn’t us”.

Here's the latest media report:

Recount gives Abramson Palm Beach County Circuit Court seat Canvassing board certifies judicial race after third recount  By Brian Haas | South Florida Sun-Sentinel  September 24, 2008

Our long electoral nightmare is over.

Twenty-nine days after Palm Beach County voters actually went to the polls, members of the election Canvassing Board wiped their hands clean of a disputed judicial race and certified the election.

Challenger William Abramson unseated Circuit Judge Richard Wennet by 61 votes — the same margin Wennet was once winning by after one of three sets of recounts the election has endured. The board ended up not being able to account for only four votes, a far cry from the 3,500 that were thought to be lost in the days following the Aug. 26 primary.

"I'm overwhelmed," Abramson, a lawyer, said by phone Tuesday night. "This is why we're the greatest country ... We were faced with adversity and we all rose to the challenge."

I was getting overwhelmed too.  We tried to keep up with the Palm Beach counting and recounting fiasco here, but it got more and more frustrating:

September 12. 2008 Palm Beach Elections Goes from Missing Ballots to Having too Many This could all change, but here's the latest update on the Palm Beach Elections mess:

September 12, 2008 Palm Beach Fiasco: Officials Say Ballots Not Trashed Palm Beach County Florida still can't account for 3,400 missing ballots.

September 10. 2008 Florida Voters Coalition Calls on State to Secure Palm Beach Elections The Florida Voters Coalition, The League of Women Voters, and Democratic and Republican leaders call on the State of Florida to take emergency action to secure November’s General Election.

September 4. 2008 Palm Beach Election Desperation Part III - 2500 ballots missing now Well, things have just gotten worse, perhaps coming to a head. The new number of missing ballots as of today is 2,500. 

September 4, 2008 Palm Beach Election Fiasco - 2+2 now = 3 1/2: 2,700 ballots found overnight I guess someone checked the "lost and found" department last night, and discovered 2,700 of the 3,478 missing ballots we discussed yesterday...

September 3. 2008 Palm Beach Elections: 2+2 = 3 or The ballots are missing, so start finding answers In Palm Beach County Florida, 2 + 2 = 3 if you are counting votes, and it gets worse from there.  The editors of the Palm Beach Post want to know where the 3,478 missing votes went...

September 2. 2008 Oops - 3,400 votes disappear in Palm Beach County Fl recount Maybe Florida elecions are just plain cursed. Even with brand new paper ballot based machines in Palm Beach County Florida, they can't count votes.  In the initial contest, the two candidates in the judicial contest were a mere 17 votes apart...

So we should all thank John Gideon of www.VotersUnite.org for providing the best election integrity related news content in the United States.  You can receive the Daily News for free by emailing DVN@votersunite.org