A hand recount could come soon for Wellington residents weary over disputed election results that have left the village council in limbo. On Wednesday, one day after the village’s canvassing board said it wanted a hand recount, seven Wellington residents filed a complaint, as did council candidate John Greene, seeking a court-ordered recount of Wellington’s March 13 races. The county’s elections office and the canvassing board Tuesday agreed to file lawsuits for the recount, but did not say when those filings would happen. “We’re not going to wait on them,” said Greene, who filed a complaint late Wednesday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. “If a hand recount is what is going to appease everybody, we want it to happen. We want to move on.”
Greene and Matt Willhite were the winners of seat 1 and seat 4, respectively, based on a revised tally of votes last week. A routine audit had shown that results from election night were wrong due to a software error. The mistake meant that Shauna Hostetler no longer prevailed in seat 1, nor did Al Paglia in seat 4.
Neither Hostetler nor Paglia had been comfortable stepping aside based on an unofficial recount. Hostetler on Wednesday hailed the board’s decision as good for voters.
Full Article: Wellington voters file suit to speed recount of ballots.