Recount continues with a review of voter registration logs  (FL)

JANE MUSGRAVE and Kimberly Miller  Palm Beach Post    05 September 2008

Palm Beach County elections officials are reviewing voter registration logs this morning from the Aug. 26 primary, hoping to get a better count of how many people voted.

The tedious review of the logs, which people sign at their precincts before they actually vote, is part of an effort to account for 3,478 missing ballots revealed following a recount of the primary results.

At the same time, a team of county employees began searching the county's 780 polling places at about 8 a.m., looking for the ballots.

"They're looking everywhere to see if there are any ballots," said Kathy Adams, a spokeswoman for Palm Beach County's Supervisor of Elections office.

Officials believed they had found 2,700 of the 3,478 ballots on Thursday, but then workers revealed they had actually come up with only 957 ballots.

"Even if they found the additional ballots, it would be suspect where they came from," said attorney Peter Sosin, who is representing judicial candidate William Abramson in what promises to be a legal battle with his opponent Circuit Court Judge Richard Wennet.

Two candidates in a state House race attended a meeting of the county canvassing board and questioned the validity of the entire election. They indicated they may join Abramson and Wennet in court.

After the Aug. 26 primary, elections officials said 102,523 people voted. The recount, however, turned up only 99,045 ballots. Leading by 17 votes going into the recount, Abramson ended up losing by 60 votes.

Adams said the canvassing board will meet today at noon to review the most recent information about the missing ballots.

The state canvassing board is to meet at 9:30 this morning to certify the results of the primary elections in all of Florida's 67 counties, except the one between Wennet and Abramson.