‘I feel betrayed.’ Manatee elections chief fires employees after primary election loss

Manatee County Supervisor of Elections James Satcher fired several employees in the days after losing a closely watched race to determine whether he could hold the office for four more years.

The terminations came after Satcher, a former Manatee County commissioner appointed to the position by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April, lost his contest to Scott Farrington, an election official who spent more than a decade working in the office.

Reached for comment Monday afternoon, David Ballard, the elections office’s chief of staff, confirmed four employee terminations.

In an interview with the Bradenton Herald, Satcher suggested that the employees did not meet his performance expectations. Each of the fired employees had worked in the office for at least four years.

“We’re looking for (people with) the capability to perform their job and the ability to work collaboratively in the office,” Satcher told the Bradenton Herald. “We had the election coming up and that gave us the opportunity to analyze people’s fit in the office.”

In employee separation letters shared with the Bradenton Herald, elections officials said Satcher fired a vote-by-mail employee who he claimed “chose to abandon his post” on Election Day, a longtime elections office employee who he claimed hired her “social acquaintances” as temporary employees, as well as two temporary employees.

Satcher fires employees after election loss

As the votes came in on election night, one fired employee told the Bradenton Herald that Satcher turned off the TV in the elections office and claimed it was broken. He lost his race by nearly 18% or 7,276 votes.

“I think he was having a temper tantrum,” said Chris Palmer, a longtime supervisor for voter services. “He’s losing on election night and fires somebody and he’s still on a tirade the next day and fires three of us.”

In an email, elections officials claimed the vote-by-mail employee failed to fulfill his responsibilities during the primary election.

“Despite the clear importance of the task at hand, (he) chose to abandon his post, leaving the team severely understaffed on one of the most pivotal days of the year,” the employee’s separation letter said. “Instead of seeking a constructive resolution to a disagreement with his colleagues, he opted to remove himself from duty...”

The vote-by-mail employee did not respond to the Bradenton Herald’s request for comment.

In a separation letter, elections officials claimed that Palmer refused to make a list of candidates for temporary jobs, hired her “social acquaintances” for those jobs and made an employee cry.

“...Ms. Palmer was overheard instructing a temporary employee to ‘slow down,’ accompanied by a downward push hand motion,” the letter said. “It is unclear whether this was an effort to create additional overtime opportunities for temporary staff or an effort to harm the office-wide goal of a safe and secure election.”

Fired Manatee election employees speak out

After she read a copy of the separation letter, Palmer denied the allegations against her and said she believes Satcher was trying to ruin her reputation.

“I cried,” Palmer said. “It crushed me. I can’t believe people blatantly do that and have no thought for the person they’re ruining. Why?”

Palmer, who worked at the elections office for almost 16 years, described the work environment over the last few months as “hostile” and “repressive.”

“I’ve been faithful,” Palmer said. “I’ve done everything for the voters. I feel betrayed. I feel sad. I feel a lot of things because I have my political beliefs, but when I go into that office, I’m nonpartisan. My beliefs don’t play into anything. I don’t believe he can separate his beliefs from the office.”

Teresa Margraf, a temporary employee with 14 years of election experience, described Satcher as unapproachable.

“I had no dealings with him,” Margraf said. “He would walk in, talk to the lady next to me and turn around and walk away. It was tense in there. People were nervous. People were on edge. Some of those people, younger people, they have to have their jobs and they’re scared to death to do anything.”

Margraf, who worked on data entry, handled vote-by-mail requests and answered voter questions, said the elections office was “always a fun place to work” under previous leadership.

“I’m a people person,” Margraf said. “For the most part, (voters are) really nice, but they’ve all got their own opinions about this candidate or this election. It’s really interesting to listen to it.”

Satcher, who got the job after the resignation of former Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett, said politics did not play a role in the employee terminations.

“I don’t even know where these people come out on any of these races,” Satcher said. “I don’t ask that. I ask people to show up, work with the people around them and accomplish their basic tasks. That’s how I grade my employees and that’s how I decided we needed to go in another direction because I was unimpressed with their performance.”

Knowledge ‘lost’ heading into general election, candidate says

Farrington, who will compete against write-in candidate Thomas W. Dell in November, said he was concerned that several employees were fired before the general election.

“I want the November election to go well, and I am a little concerned that there are employees that aren’t there anymore,” Farrington told the Bradenton Herald. “There’s a lot of knowledge that was just lost.”

Palmer pointed out that there was a 25% voter turnout for the primary election, compared to an expected 80% for the general election.

“The people there are already working themselves ragged,” Palmer said. “You can’t do that consistently. You’re going to either get sick or you’re going to start making mistakes. The employees left behind are loyal. They’re going to do their jobs and they’re going to do the best they can, but they’re going to be tired. They’re going to be overworked.”

Harriet “Heddy” Darnell, a fired temporary employee with 10 years of election experience, also said employees will have to ”bend over backwards” during the general election.

“The election will happen because there are dedicated people in that office that will make it happen,” Darnell said. “It’s going to be a lot of work for them. Satcher will pat himself on the back, but he doesn’t have anything to lose this election because he’s already been defeated.”

As he draws criticism for the employee terminations, Satcher said he believes the employee personnel changes will set Manatee County up for a “better” election later this year.

“We’re setting up for an even better November with more transparency than ever before, more controls on the votes and how they take place and how they’re recorded and how they’re audited,” Satcher said. “This is going to be the most secure election we’ve held in Manatee County. I give a lot of the credit to some good people around us for helping make that possible.”

This story was originally published August 30, 2024 at 1:00 PM.