County Canvassing Board Will Judge Century Special Election, Not The Candidates

March 21, 2023

Two of the four candidates in next week’s special election for the Century Town Council won’t be tasked with judging the fairness of the election.

In a typical Florida election, a group composed of the county supervisor of elections, the chair of the county commission and a county court judge serve as what is called the “canvassing board”. And there are provisions to replace them with alternates if they are seeking, or they support someone seeking, election.

The Century charter — the document that establishes and governs the town — states, “The council shall be the judge of the election…”.

Century Attorney Matt Dannheisser rendered an opinion that the council was thus bound to serve as the de facto canvassing board and “judge” the election, as inadvisable as that might seem to be a conflict of interest.

Two candidates — Shelisa McCall and Alicia Johnson — are currently serving as appointed interim town council members. Each is facing opposition from another candidate. At a recent council meeting, all four candidates and the three other council members agreed that “judging” the election by two candidates would be wrong.

Now, Dannheisser has decided the town should follow the recommendation of the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Office and use the county canvassing board.

In an email to the Escambia County Attorney’s Office, Dannheisser wrote:

“In the numerous communications that subsequently occurred, I have not seen any mention of a statute which mandates application of county canvasing board requirements to municipal elections.  I remain hopeful that you can demonstrate the existence of such a statute as it would put this entire matter to rest.”

“The foregoing notwithstanding, you have stated your opinion that ‘It is our position Florida Statutes sec. 100.3605 tracking the same language as used in the Interlocal Agreement controls due to “the absence of an applicable special act, charter or ordinance provision“ regarding election conduct.’ From that statement I take it that the Supervisor’s position is that the County canvassing board is required to canvass the Town’s upcoming special election.  In an effort to resolve the underlying concerns, the Town is prepared to rely on your position and have the election held on that basis,” Dannheisser concluded.

A county canvassing board has now been appointed. Their first official action will be logic and accuracy testing of the voting and tabulating equipment at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Supervisor of Elections Warehouse and Training Facility at 3201 West Navy Boulevard in Pensacola.

Canvassing board members are:

  • County Judge Barry E. Dickson, Jr., Chair
  • Supervisor of Elections David H. Stafford
  • County Commissioner Robert Bender

Alternate members are:

  • County Judge Scott Ritchie
  • Elizabeth Kissell (Escambia County grants and special projects manager)

Comments

2 Responses to “County Canvassing Board Will Judge Century Special Election, Not The Candidates”

  1. CJ Lewis on March 21st, 2023 1:46 pm

    To wrap things up, why did this became an “issue” for this specific special election?

  2. Well on March 21st, 2023 12:48 pm

    Good to see that the Council didn’t want to be the canvassing board.

    Could be dealing with a couple of 51 – 49 votes.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News