Two Wellington residents – one of them the village’s first mayor – have filed a lawsuit to try to stop Tuesday’s swearing-in of candidates whom a March 19 recount determined were elected to the village council. A hearing will take place at 8:45 a.m. Monday in Palm Beach Circuit Court in front of Judge Robin Rosenberg. The lawsuit, filed by former mayor Kathy Foster and Gaye A. Scarpa, also seeks to stop the village canvassing board from certifying any election results other than those certified by county Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher on March 16.
… A routine audit conducted March 19 showed an error in the county’s vote-tabulating software led to the county elections office declaring the wrong winners in the two council races. The elections office also said Margolis won election over Bowen by a much closer margin. The outcome is significant because the revised list of winners have expressed skepticism toward the largest proposed commercial development within the village – the Equestrian Village at Pierson Road and South Shore Boulevard. On March 20, the canvassing board threw out the March 13 election results and scheduled a meeting for Tuesday to decide whether to certify the retabulated numbers from last week.
Greene, who plans to file his own lawsuit Monday following the emergency hearing, took issue Sunday with the plaintiffs’ actions. “We feel that people on a technicality are trying to circumvent the will of the people,” he said. “We want to make sure that the votes are counted fairly, which we believe they have been at this point. “It’s just an unfortunate situation.”
Full Article: Lawsuit filed to stop swearing-in of Wellington elected officials.