By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Chiefland’s Municipal Election ended Thursday evening with Commissioner Lance Hayes being declared the official winner.

            The city’s canvassing board browsed through 382 ballots and found that Hayes received 196 votes to 186 for challenger Tim West.

            Chiefland Police Chief Scott Anderson, Fire Chief James Harris, and County Coordinator Wilbur Dean served as the canvassing board.

            City Manager Laura Cain, who ran the election, worked with the canvassing board and Supervisor of Elections Tammy Jones to count the ballots and certify the election results.

            The process seemed a bit clumsy at times and wasn’t clearly visible to visitors watching from below in the city commission meeting room at Chiefland City Hall. The canvassing board was seated at an elevated desk, known as a dais, that city commissioners use for their meetings.

            Hayes was certified as the winner of the election before the canvassing board conducted an audit of the ballots. The audit consisted of hand-counting all 382 ballots to determine if the machine count was accurate. Jones was asked how the election could be certified before the audit was conducted. She said if there were problems found with the audit, she would fill out a form explaining the problem and send it to Tallahassee.

            There were eight ballots in question that the canvassing board reviewed to determine whether Hayes was the confirmed winner. Two of eight ballots were found to be legal and were counted as part of the total. The other six ballots were rejected by the canvassing board. The voters who cast the legal ballots chose Hayes over West.

            Two of three mail-in ballots that needed to be “cured” of eligibility issues were rejected by the canvassing board and a third was accepted as being legal. When canvassing board members examined the good ballot, they found that the voter chose Hayes over West.

            Hayes came into the canvassing board meeting Tuesday night with 194 votes. He left with 196. West didn’t receive any additional votes from the examination of the eight ballots in question.

            In Florida, mail-in ballots may have a missing signature, or the signature is questionable, or there might be a question about whether the address written on the ballot envelope was actually in the city limits. The voter is given a certain amount of time to “cure” the problem by notifying the elections office and providing information to verify their eligibility. The canvassing board then rules on whether the ballot has been cured and can be legally counted.

            Hayes won the election by a small margin, 10 votes, but it wasn’t enough to trigger what is known as a recount of the ballots. A recount is possible when the margin of victory is only one-half of one percent. The 382 ballots were still hand-counted in the audit. Since there was only one race on the ballot, Jones said the race could be audited. She normally picks one race off a ballot to be audited to test voting machine accuracy. In this case, there was only one race on the ballot.

            Jones declared at the end of the audit that the machine vote was 100 percent accurate. Canvassing board members each received a pile of ballots and then each began counting their respective pile as part of the audit. Jones also participated in the count.

            In Florida, Mail-in ballots may have a missing signature, or the signature is questionable, or there might be a question about whether the address written on the ballot envelope was actually in the city limits. The voter is given a certain amount of time to cure the problem by notifying the elections office and providing information to verify their eligibility. The canvassing board then rules on whether the ballot has been cured and can be legally counted.

            Hayes won the election by a small margin, 10 votes, but it wasn’t enough to trigger a recount of the ballots. A recount is possible when the margin of victory is only one-half of one percent. The 382 ballots were still hand-counted. Since there was only one race on the ballot, Jones said the race would be audited, which amounted to a hand recount of the ballots.

            Canvassing board members each received a pile of ballots and then each began counting their respective pile. Jones also participated in the count. The count was aimed at determining if the voting machine count was accurate. Jones declared at the end of the audit that the machine vote was 100 percent accurate.

            Jones said she has been using Dominion software since 2014 and the machine count has been 100 percent accurate every year. She is aware of the criticism of Dominion software and hardware, but she said she has never had a problem with its accuracy.

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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt April 7, 2022; Posted April 8, 2022