Republican Elections Supervisor Kathy Dent has barred outside observers from the Democratic Party from continuing to monitor absentee ballot processing, contrary to instructions from the canvassing board, which oversees the county’s elections.

Dent, a candidate for re-election, said the overwhelming number of absentee ballots still being sent out and returning daily in the mail – she predicts 55,000 Sarasotans will vote by mail this election – had inundated her absentee ballot department; her obligation to keep ballots secure left no room for the observers.

Kathy Dent, Sarasota County supervisor of elections.

"We have ballots everywhere," she said. "We have no place to put [the observers] now, and we can’t have them just roaming around, and don’t have the staff to assign someone to watch them. They ask questions of my staff and make remarks they find intimidating … and make members of my staff nervous."

The most diligent and persistent of the observers, local computer experts Skip Parrish and Patrick Gannon – both of whom were hired by the Democratic Party – were told last week they would no longer be allowed to watch the processing of absentee ballots. The two have spotted procedural and counting errors and have been reporting their findings directly to the canvassing board, which meets periodically.

That board is now made up of two county judges, Deputy County Attorney Kathleen Schneider and Sarasota City Clerk Billy Robinson. Dent sits on the board by virtue of her office.

Democratic Party Chairman Rita Ferrandino said she had submitted a letter protesting Dent’s actions to the canvassing board, hoping its members can convince Dent to rescind her ruling. In it Ferrandino wrote:

"Observation of all aspects of the processing of the absentee ballots is clearly essential to uphold the integrity of the electoral process. The absentee ballots are unique. They are processed before they are counted, the elector’s party affiliation is known, and their receipt is entered into the voter registration system.

" … We believe that the intent of all of our election laws is to insure regularized procedures with a maximum degree of transparency and openness to public observation .…"

But Dent said that while the canvassing board has supervisory jurisdiction over vote counts, "It does not tell me how to run my office. When it comes to letting in party observers, the supervisor makes that decision."

But the board has tried to advise her. On Aug. 21, before the primary, board minutes reflect that its members felt outside monitoring was important:

"The board then considered [the] request on behalf of the Democrats to designate a person or persons to observe the absentee ballot processing for the August primary and November general election, including the initial opening of the ballots, compilation of ballots for signature verification and sorting of ballots for presentation to the Canvassing Board.

"Following discussion, the board approved the request with conditions. Designated observers may observe from a designated area but may not have access to ballots or engage in conversation with staff."

Dent’s staff keeps the board’s minutes. But she said that all that goes on before the actual counting – at which time the observers will be allowed back in – "is just our internal work," and not something that anyone needs to monitor.

The observers disagree, saying that employees must scan the envelopes, match signatures on envelopes with signatures on file and make initial rulings on the signatures’ authenticity before sorting them, a process that has plenty of room for errors. At one point, the observers noted that a clerk who was recording the date of each absentee ballot’s arrival didn’t realize that her computer terminal was jumping five days ahead – which could have disqualified ballots as late, if that continued and the ballots were received close to Election Day.

"By far the most difficult part of my job this year as chairman of the party has … been the need to stay laser-focused on protecting the electorate’s right to have their votes counted," Ferrandino said. "With such potentially close races, I would think she’d want a transparent voting process, too, to prove she’s conducting accurate, lawful elections."

The canvassing board met Tuesday morning for logic and accuracy testing of the electronic election terminals. Because of a staff coding error discovered on Saturday, staffers said, only those few machines needed for early voting, which begins Monday, could be tested. The remaining machines will be tested on Oct. 27, beginning at 8 a.m. -- eight days before Election Day.