03-14-2001 Canvassing Board Minutes
MINUTES OF THE CITY OF OCOEE CANVASSING BOARD MEETING HELD
MARCH 14, 2001
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Vandergrift called the Canvassing Board to order at 12:08 p.m. in the Commission
Chambers Conference Room. The roll was called and a quorum declared present.
PRESENT: Mayor Vandergrift, Commissioner Anderson, and Commissioner Parker. Also
present were City Attorney Rosenthal, City Clerk Grafton, Deputy City Clerk Green and Deputy
City Clerk Whitford.
Also attending were Commissioner/Candidate Howell, Commissioner Johnson, Candidate
Martha Lopez-Anderson, Denise Lenko, Treasurer for Candidate Henderson, Boxing Club
Coordinator Tony Cristelli, and Recreation Supervisor Vickie Prettyman.
ABSENT:
None.
ELECTION FOR COMMISSIONER, DISTRICT 1 AND MAYOR
Attorney Rosenthal announced that City Clerk Grafton would open the sealed absentee
ballots. Ms. Grafton then explained she had picked up the ballots that morning and, after
verifying the signatures, the Supervisor of Elections had separated them by district.
City Clerk Grafton then read into the record the absentee ballot information shown below:
. District I - 32 ballots
. District 2 - 118 ballots
. District 3 - 57 ballots
. District 4 - 51 ballots
. In addition to these, the Supervisor of Elections recommended the rejection of 6 ballots due
to failure to comply with state law requirements. 1 no signature, 2 had no witnesses, and 3 no
witness addresses.
After the ballots recommended for rejection were reviewed by each person at the table,
Commissioner Parker. seconded by Commissioner Anderson. moved to reiect the 6 absentee
ballots as recommended by the Supervisor of Elections. Motion carried 2-0 with Mayor
Vandergrift abstaining.
Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Parker, moved to accept for counting
all the remaining absentee ballots as recommended by the Supervisor of Elections. Motion
carried 2-0 with Mayor Vandergrift abstaining.
Ocoee Canvassing Board
March 14,2001
The absentee ballots for District #1 were then opened and counted with the results added to the
ballot totals from the tabulator machines received election evening. They are as follows.
Commission District 1 #1 #2 #3 #4 Absentees Total
Henderson 194 N/A N/A N/A 6 200
Howell 328 N/A N/A N/A 16 344
West 135 N/A N/A N/A 10 145
Total 657 N/A N/A N/A 32 689
Ms. Grafton explained that according to the City Charter a candidate must receive 50% of the
votes cast plus one in order to be declared a winner. In order to have won, Mr. Howell would
have had to have 344.5 plus one or 345.5 votes. Ms. Grafton stated since he did not there would
need to be a run-off between Mr. Howell and Mr. Henderson.
Attorney Rosenthal suggested since the balance of the absentee ballots were for the Mayoral
election only they be sorted into stacks by candidate and then count stacks.
The balance of the absentee ballots were then opened by district and sorted by candidate in stacks
of25. Each stack was verified twice.
For the Mayoral race the Absentee ballots were as follows.
District # I District #2 District #3 District #4
Vandergrift 16 38 37 19
Lopez-Anderson 12 63 13 24
Sills 4 17 6 8
Cox 0 0 I 0
Totals 32 118 57 51
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Ocoee Canvassing Board
March 14,2001
The totals of absentee ballots were confirmed bv City Clerk. Jean Grafton
The totals were then added to the totals of the hand cast ballots from the tabulator machine tapes.
Those totals are as follows
Mayoral Race #1 #2 #3 #4 Absentees Total
Cox 4 2 7 4 1 18
Lopez-Anderson 99 134 44 140 112 529
Sills 206 228 130 92 35 691
Vandergrift 354 518 260 531 110 1773
Total 663 882 441 767 258 3011
City Clerk. Jean Grafton. then read aloud the total ballots cast for each candidate.
Commissioner Parker. seconded by Commissioner Anderson. moved to certify the results and
declare S. Scott Vandergrift elected as Mayor and to declare that there is a run-off for
Commission District #1 between Bill Henderson and Danny Howell. Motion carried 2-0 with
Mayor Vandergrift abstaining.
Ms. Grafton announced Rusty Johnson had run unopposed and would serve as City
Commissioner District #3 for another term, and beginning with this year the term would be 3
years. Ms. Grafton also announced the Runoff election between Mr. Henderson and Mr. Howell
for District #1 Commissioner would be held on April 10, 2001 at the Jim Beech Recreation
Center.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 1 :20 p.m. and the results were sent immediately to the Orange County
Supervisor of Elections. Upon receipt of the results, Mrs. June Condron advised Mrs. Grafton
that, because Mr. Howell had missed winning his race by less than one-half of one percent, a
hand recount of the ballots was required. She added that because the tapes from that race showed
2 undervotes in the Mayor's race and 8 undervotes in the Commission race there was a
possibility someone had written in a vote the machine did not count that the Board would be
required to consider, as Florida is a "voter intent" state.
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Ocoee Canvassing Board
March 14,2001
All who were present at the noon meeting were notified immediately of the need to
reconvene the Board and a meeting time of 4:30 was agreed upon.
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Vandergrift called the Canvassing Board back to order at 4:40 p.m. in the Commission
Chambers Conference Room. The roll was called and a quorum declared present.
PRESENT: Mayor Vandergrift, Commissioner Anderson, and Commissioner Parker. Also
present were Assistant City Attorney Cookson, City Clerk Grafton, Deputy City Clerk Green and
Deputy City Clerk Whitford.
Also attending were Commissioner/Candidate Howell, Denise Lenko, Treasurer for Candidate
Henderson, Jerry Henderson, brother of Candidate Henderson, Customer Service Supervisor
Cathy Sills, Susan Clary, Reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, and John Raoux, photographer
Orlando Sentinel. Commissioner Johnson arrived at 5: 14 p. m.
ABSENT:
None.
RECOUNT ELECTION FOR COMMISSIONER, DISTRICT 1
City Clerk Jean Grafton read into the record the results from the tabulators used in the election
as follows:
Tabulator 1
Jim Beech Recreation Center Polling Place
. Precincts 1106 and 4106 1432 ballots counted 0 not counted
total ballots cast 1432
District 1 Mayor
District 1 City Commission
Jeffery Cox
Martha Lopez-Anderson
Jim Sills
S. Scott Vandergrift
4
99
206
354
Bill Henderson
Danny Howell
T. Milton West
194
328
135
Overvotes 0 Undervotes 2
Overvotes 0 Undervotes 8
District 4 Mayor
Jeffery Cox 4
Martha Lopez-Anderson 140
Jim Sills 92
S. Scott Vandergrift 531
Overvotes 0 Undervotes 0
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Ocoee Canvassing Board
March 14,2001
Tabulator 2
Ocoee Community Center Polling Place
. Precinct 2106
882 ballots counted 0 not counted
total ballots cast
882
District 2 Mayor
Jeffery Cox
Martha Lopez-Anderson
Jim Sills
S. Scott Vandergrift
2
134
228
518
Overvotes 0
Undervotes 0
Tabulator 3
Ocoee Community Center Polling Place
. Precinct 3106
441 ballots counted 0 not counted
total ballots cast
441
District 3 Mayor
Jeffery Cox
Martha Lopez-Anderson
Jim Sills
S. Scott Vandergrift
7
44
130
260
Overvotes 0
Undervotes 0
These figures were consistent with the printout read into the record at the March 14, 2001,
morning Canvassing Board Meeting and were also verified by the tabulator tapes in the sealed
envelopes held by the Mayor and Commissioner Anderson.
Attorney Cookson explained to the Canvassing Board their responsibilities in counting the
undervotes. He also explained that a voter is allowed to vote for Mayor only or Commissioner
only, they need not vote for both.
After Districts 1 and 4 ballots were separated from each other and the 10 undervotes were set
aside for each Canvassing Board member to review, the ballots were then separated by candidate.
Upon examination the undervotes were determined to be votes cast by voters who intended to
vote only for either the Mayor race or the Commission race and not both. Each of the candidate's
ballots were then counted and the results were announced as follows by City Clerk Grafton.
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Ocoee Canvassing Board
March 14,2001
Bill Henderson 194
Danny Howell 328
T. Milton West 13 5
The Canvassing Board determined that, as the hand-count results did not differ from the original
count, a run-off election would still be needed between Mr. Henderson and Mr. Howell for the
District # 1 Commission seat.
Commissioner Anderson. seconded by Commissioner Parker. moved to certify the results of
the hand re-count as presented. Motion carried 2- 0 with Mayor Vandergrift abstaining.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 5 :40 p.m.
Attest:
APPROVED
City of Ocoee
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S.- Scott Vandergrift, Mayor
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