Shortly after I posted the below post, I got a phone call from my campaign manager, Francine. It seems that the Palm Beach County election counting debacle has cursed the Wellington 2012 races.

On, Monday, I spent all afternoon and evening at The Supervisor of Elections office. Sparing the details, the short story is the votes had not been scanned correctly and our election results may not be valid.

Yikes.

A few glitches...the results had already been certified to the state on Friday, March 16. On Monday, the Wellington canvassing board arrived to conduct a routine audit so they could officially present the election results to the Village staff, council, and residents prior to swearing in the new council members. However, a simple audit raised a red flag regarding the results. Nothing matched up.

A re-count (illegally) was ordered and around 8pm, new results were announced. Now I was not the winner for seat 1. Now Mr Paglia was not the winner for seat 4, the Mayor-elect remained the same.

I congratulated my opponent and his family and met with the media before heading home in a state of shock. I was willing to accept the revised results, however, there is no guarantee the new scan was done properly or with legal authority.

Very long story filled with details, but the bottom line...no one is sure who won the election and anyone who knows how ugly the campaign was with the superPAC knows that it is a very suspicious turn of events. Thirteen other cities' votes were counted 100% correct and Wellington's happened to have a computer glitch that has never happened in the history of this equipment or anywhere, for that matter. It is all very fishy.

Honestly, I want it to be over and I will be relieved if I am not named a winner under such tumultuous circumstances. However, there is all the legal due diligence to address before the final verdict can be determined.

My answer..ask a judge to approve a hand count.
We already have 2 sets of results, let's see what the 3rd count brings without the machines.

Palm Beach County has a "black eye" when it comes to counting votes (think Bush-Gore 2000) and now it has rubbed off on Wellington.

Stay tuned.