Since the dawn of the 21st century, the Supervisor of Elections in Manatee County has always delivered primary election results by 8:30pm on election night. Gone were the days of hand counts that were announced at midnight.
Scott Farrington should have dressed election poll workers in tie-dye T-shirts as he took our election returns back to the 1970s. It seems that Scott Farrington thought that it was important to remove the phrase “In God We Trust” from the elections office. Given his performance, he could have used some timely help from somewhere to do his job in a professional manner.
Two years ago, McClash and McCann told us that Farrington was the professional that would prevent the Supervisor of Elections Office from becoming a hillbilly hangout under James Satcher. McClash and McCann said that Farrington was needed to save our county the embarrassment of an office run by Satcher. These same leftist leaning individuals have developed laryngitis when it comes to asking questions about what happened when it came time to count the primary votes in Manatee County.
The voters of our county watched in embarrassment as the hours ticked off with no final election results. Farrington had purchased a new system to improve the election process. It failed. In spite of this failure, Farrington refused to give the voters an explanation. He refused to publish the precinct level data before the Canvassing Board met to certify the election, thus robbing the public of an opportunity to spot irregularities.
I do not pretend to know what happened with the failure of the election night vote counting. I do know that the voters of this county are offended that after the biggest fiasco in decades, Scott Farrington hid behind his office doors and gave the public “crickets.”
Scott, You had one job to do!!!!!
Bob Spencer
Publisher
Manatee Herald
publisher@manateeherald.com
