Monday, March 23, 2009

Attorneys for Monroe County and two people locked in a battle for the 16th Judicial Circuit Court bench are about a week away from completing interviews with 69 absentee voters in the contested race.

When attorneys finish deposing the final 10 voters on Thursday, they will travel back to Tallahassee, where 2nd Circuit Judge Kevin Davey will consider whether to count any, all or none of the 69 ballots.

Mary Vanden Brook is contesting her three-vote loss to Tegan Slaton in November, who in January was installed as judge to replace retiring Judge Sandra Taylor.

Davey ordered attorneys for both sides to find and depose -- interview, in legal parlance -- absentee voters whose ballots the Monroe County Canvassing Board rejected because the signatures on the ballots did not appear to match signatures on file with the Monroe County Board of Elections.

"We've deposed about 56 people," Assistant Monroe County Attorney Bob Shillinger said Friday. "We've made some good progress."

Attorneys are scheduled to interview another 10 Thursday, which should complete the process, Shillinger said. Some voters had medical issues, died or declined to take part in the process, attorneys said.

"The end is in sight," Vanden Brook said.

Vanden Brook alleges in her lawsuit that election officials incorrectly counted some ballots, erred on some duplicate ballots and did not view all the ballots before scanning them during a machine recount.

The suit names the Florida Election Canvassing Commission, comprising Gov. Charlie Crist, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and Attorney General Bill McCollum; the Monroe County Canvassing Board, comprising County Supervisor of Elections Harry Sawyer, Chairman Wayne Miller, Ruth Becker and Danise Henriquez; as well as Sawyer individually as elections supervisor.

After the polls closed Nov. 4, it appeared Slaton had won by nine votes. After a machine and manual recount that Vanden Brook requested, the gap narrowed to four votes. Davey tossed one more vote from Slaton's tally to Vanden Brook's after a court hearing in her suit contesting the recount.

The judgeship is a six-year job that pays $145,080 annually.

alinhardt@keynews.com