Supervisor of Elections Office Statement--Tavares City Council Seat 1 Election

Unfortunately, human errors do occur. This is exactly what happened on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at the Tavares Civic Center polling location.

The election worker giving each voter their ballot, mistakenly gave to 39 city voters, a ballot intended only for county voters.  Those ballots did not have either of the two City of Tavares City Council candidates listed on them.

Immediately when the Supervisor of Elections learned of the mistakes, a senior staff person was directed to the location. The person making the mistakes was dismissed from duty and replaced by another election worker.

The Supervisor’s office monitored closely, that location for the remainder of the day and on Wednesday, we did an in-depth analysis of all the ballots issued and tabulated at that location.

That analysis disclosed that no more than 39 incorrect ballots were distributed to voters.

The tabulated margin of victory was 147 votes. Further analysis disclosed that if all 39 votes were subtracted from the winning candidate and given to the losing candidate, the winner would not change. 

Florida statute 102.141(7) states: “If the unofficial returns reflect that a candidate for any office was defeated or eliminated by one-half of a percent or less of the votes cast for such office, ……a recount shall be ordered of the votes cast with respect to such office or measure.”

The difference between the winning total and the losing total is 1.1% thus it is greater than one-half of one percent and no recount is directed by statute.

Our office deeply regrets this error and we certainly have apologized to all the candidates. We also extend to all Lake Countians, our deepest apology, and we shall continue to strive to eliminate all such occurrences.  No other precincts in this past election had any such problems reported.