The Allen West re-election campaign is raising questions about the very odd behavior of the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections, Gertrude Walker. Rep. West carried the other two counties in his district, but "lost" St. Lucie County. The campaign's official website writes:

West for Congress released this statement regarding the growing inconsistencies and continued obfuscation coming from St. Lucie County Board of Supervisors, Gertrude Walker, regarding the election results.

"Last night during a press conference, the Supervisor announced her office had determined that approximately 3,650 ballots were double-counted on election night, and approximately 1,950 ballots were not counted at all, with all ballots coming from the last three days of early voting - which is what was retabulated on Sunday. However, if this information is accurate, the total vote in the county should have decreased by 1,700 votes after the Sunday retabulation. Instead the total votes cast declined by 799. It simply does not add up.

In addition, according to news reports, the Supervisor of Elections announced her office re-ran some 26,000 ballots from early voting. This would account for the first 6 days of the 8 days of early voting. However, on election night, the campaign staff was told there was a problem with the first 3 days of voting, which would involve approximately 13,000 ballots based on information uploaded to the Division of Elections. What is the truth?

Finally, during the same press conference, the Supervisor announced there were some "blank" memory cards involved. If these "blank" memory cards were in reference to the election night decision to retabulate 26,000 ballots, then the cards processed on the first 5 days of early voting have been processed twice, the ballots on day 6 have been processed three times, and of the ballots on the last two days, some have been processed twice and some only once. Whether this resulted through mechanical malfunction, negligence or willful action, the voters of St. Lucie County deserve to know their votes have been fairly counted.

Towards that end, we are pleased Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner has decided to send auditors to St. Lucie County to examine the returns and the ballot-counting process, and we have detailed our concerns to him in a letter today.

The West campaign is simply seeking the truth, and an accurate count of votes. Given the inconsistencies emanating from the Supervisor's office, we have no confidence in any of the information regarding the votes counted or the election results overall."

Read the full text of the letter here

Readers who wish to contribute to the effort to achieve an honest count can find information here.