Clemens-Bernard count postponed again until 4:30 p.m.
by Andrew Abramson | August 15th, 2012Both Mack Bernard and Jeff Clemens were on hand this morning to see the final results of Tuesday’s State Senate vote. And they’ll have to wait even longer.
The county’s canvassing board finished counting absentee ballots last night but postponed their count of provisional ballots until 10 a.m. this morning. But after counting about 25 provisional ballots today, the board had to postpone the count until 4:30 p.m.
Because of a change in the voting law last year, voters who move from one county to another and haven’t changed their address with the supervisor’s office prior to voting now have to fill out a provisional ballot. Previously, a voter already registered in the state could change their address when voting and fill out a standard ballot.
Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher said her office will spend the next few hours contacting elections’ offices in 11 counties to ensure that voters who filled out provisional ballots did not also vote in the county they were previously registered in. Bucher said she’s not sure if there are just 11 ballots left to count or if one or more of the counties had multiple voters cast a provisional ballot in Palm Beach County on Tuesday.
The canvassing board counted about 25 ballots Wednesday morning, but Bucher did not provide updated figures. As of Wednesday morning, Clemens is up just 35 votes on fellow state representative Bernard out of more than 24,000 votes (50.07 percent to 49.93 percent).
While Bernard spent hours last night at the Palm Beach County tabulation center in Riviera Beach, Clemens celebrated what he thought was a victory and later sent some of his consultants to the vote count.
On Wednesday, both Clemens and Bernard were on hand to watch the final vote. Bucher said a recount is expected this weekend, which is required when a race is within half a percentage point.
“I don’t think much is going to change today,” Clemens said. “I’m just glad I’m still up.”
Both sides had lawyers on hand in case there is a legal challenge.
“My attorney and I have not a chance to assess the situation,” Bernard said. “The first thing is to make sure every vote is counted.”
Tags: bnblogs, Jeff Clemens, Mack Bernard
August 15th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Scott’s side kick. the Haitian will do lots of Voodoo magic to win the election!!!
August 15th, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Pretty racist, jebamoni4…
August 15th, 2012 at 1:03 pm
jebamoni may very well be jeff clemens…
August 15th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Bernard is a republican wearing a democrats custom. He is scotts puppet! He is the only dem who voted yes on some of scotts criminal bills.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Let the attempts to steal the vote commence!
August 15th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
‘Whasup.’ The attempt began with absentee ballots for Mack and Bobby, voters being “helped” in filling them out. If the Post reporters dig in, they might uncover voter fraud in Riviera Beach and Mangonia Park similar to what the Miami Herald recently found in Miami.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:28 pm
Clemens Camp complains about Everything! Macks Team is pretty humble. What the post should look at is the relationship between Clemens and Susan at the Supervisor of elections office. She was worried about Succe (who she blew out) but in the process the was worried about the Haitian turn out. A low hatian turn out is a win-win for them both.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
Every vote should be counted. Stupid for Clemens to celebrate when nothing was finalized.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Clemens maybe better on paper but Bernard is better in real life.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
only because of Bernard my home insurance leaped to thosands of dollars.I voted for him last time and he screwed lot of home owners. Pl.CHECK YOUR HOME INSURANCE BILL AND TALK IN DEFENCE OF THIS HOLY GUY!!!
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