Manatee elections chief gets budget boost for ballot safety. Is it ‘smoke and mirrors?’

Manatee County officials have approved a significant budget increase after newly appointed Supervisor of Elections James Satcher questioned the integrity of local elections and vote-by-mail ballots.

Satcher, who has filed to run for a four-year term as supervisor, asked for a budget increase of $841,340, or 26%, to boost public confidence in the 2024 presidential election. He said the money will go toward new election equipment, an early voting location in the North River Ranch area and two satellite offices in the Lakewood Ranch and North River Ranch areas.

“I want to be able to look every single citizen in Manatee County in the eye and say we did everything we could to be sure this election was secure, that we maintained voter integrity and that we kept an eye on their money,” Satcher said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis picked Satcher, a former county commissioner, for the job in April after Mike Bennett, Manatee County’s election supervisor of nearly 12 years, retired in March. The temporary appointment lasts until voters elect a permanent elections supervisor.

But critics of Satcher’s request, including Commissioner George Kruse and former elections supervisor Bennett, questioned the lack of detail in his proposal and why that much money is needed with only four months left in the county’s fiscal year.

Commissioners ultimately voted 4-1 in favor of the budget increase during Tuesday’s public meeting, with Commissioner Kruse voting against and Commissioner Amanda Ballard abstaining. Ballard’s husband, David, was recently hired as Satcher’s chief of staff at the elections office.

Manatee County officials debate budget increase

Satcher said Manatee County will continue to have the lowest cost per vote compared to counties with similar population sizes. He argued that it is important to offer election services where voters live. The two satellite offices will require increased operational and personnel costs.

With the presidential election approaching, Kruse asked if staffing the offices would cause a disruption and why it requires immediate attention.

Kruse pointed out that Manatee County accounted for 12 of the state’s 1,339 election complaints, which was less than the average for each county.

“Yes, we’re the cheapest, but that’s awesome,” Kruse said. “We’re supposed to be using taxpayer dollars to the best of our ability. If we’re the cheapest and the best, people would take that all day long.”

Satcher said hardware and software upgrades are needed to perform a full audit of certified election results. He added that the upgrades will allow elections staff to audit 100% of the races. State law requires 1% of precincts to be audited in one randomly selected race after an election.

In Manatee County, voter fraud is rare. In the most recently highly publicized case, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man who requested a vote-by-mail ballot for his dead wife in 2020 because he wanted to “test the system,” deputies said.

According to court records, he was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and two years of probation.

Satcher, who was first elected on a conservative platform, said the elections office needs security upgrades but declined to share specific details.

“It’s not my style to see a problem behind the scenes that I know and grasp right away when I see it and then come here on television in front of everyone and air those things,” Satcher said. “I’m not going to ... say security concerns I have for the office. There is some level of trust I’m asking for.”

“I think if we’re going to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, we need better information,” Kruse said.

Kruse also questioned why details of the budget request that were included in a previous version of Tuesday’s meeting agenda were no longer available on Tuesday.

Those details show a breakdown of costs in the budget request, including over $287,000 for salaries, $223,000 for machinery and equipment, $56,000 for printing and binding and $55,000 for postage.

The elections office received a budget increase of $291,958 in the 2024 budget and an increase of $338,990 in the 2023 budget. The new budget request would bump the elections office budget by 26% to $4,021,985 for the remaining four months of the fiscal year.

Former supervisor: $840K increase is ‘smoke and mirrors’

Mike Bennett, the former supervisor of elections, said there was “absolutely no need whatsoever” for the budget increase Satcher requested.

“With four months left to go before the general, he’s asked for a 26% increase for stuff that we had already included in the budget for the year,” Bennett told the Bradenton Herald after Tuesday’s decision. “There’s too much smoke and mirrors in it.”

Bennett said there were no security issues to speak of during his tenure.

“I have no idea what he’s talking about and what these concerns are,” Bennett said. “We never felt that we had to have security other than what the State of Florida said we had to have. Manatee County voters are just good people.”

Bennett said the election office’s current equipment is already capable of handling audits and recounts.

“An audit is just one machine checking another machine,” Bennett said, noting that one of the election office’s three high-speed scanners can be assigned as an audit machine to reverify votes.

Bennett also questioned why the county clerk’s office was not asked to perform an audit of the elections office to verify Satcher’s expense requests. Under his oversight, Bennett said the elections office was audited twice a year and was often able to return unused money to the county.

Satcher promotes shift to in-person voting

Satcher said his office will reduce emphasis on vote-by-mail ballots and instead encourage people to vote in person on election day.

“You have to show a picture ID to walk into Costco,” Satcher said. “So I don’t think we’re gonna be asking too much to encourage people at least to vote in person.”

Satcher and Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge called vote-by-mail an “unsupervised” process, and Commissioner Jason Bearden characterized it as “not secure.”

“We need to move to in-person voting,” Satcher said. “If everyone showed up on Election Day, it would be exciting.”

But voting by mail remains a widely popular option in Manatee County. In the 2022 general election, 43% of local voters cast their ballots using the method.

Bennett, a registered Republican, described the vote-by-mail as “extremely safe” and argued that attempts to cast doubt on the process are political and misguided. In recent years, Florida lawmakers have cracked down on vote-by-mail ballots by banning unsupervised drop boxes and requiring registered voters to opt-in to that method more frequently.

Bennett described a multi-step process where vote-by-mail ballots are opened and counted by teams of two people with different political affiliations. They are then tabulated by a machine that compares voter information against the state’s database to catch discrepancies.

Bennett said increasing in-person voting will present major challenges in finding enough sites in Manatee County willing to serve as polling places and could lead to long lines and other complications that discourage people from voting.

Voters to choose election supervisor

Before he retired, Bennett recommended his chief of staff Scott Farrington to succeed him, noting his many years of experience overseeing elections. According to his campaign biography, Farrington has administered 75 elections over the past 21 years.

Instead, the governor chose Satcher, citing the former commissioner’s background as an active community member and minister.

Satcher and his new chief of staff, Ballard, do not have prior experience overseeing elections.

When he did not get the governor’s appointment, Farrington resigned from the elections office and filed as a Republican to run for supervisor.

As of Tuesday evening, records show Satcher has raised over $70,500 in campaign funds and Farrington has raised $10,300.

This story was originally published May 29, 2024 at 5:50 AM.