For Manatee supervisor of elections, The Bradenton Journal endorses ...
Voters on Aug. 20 have a clear choice between experience and dangerous incompetence.
The most important Manatee County race on the Republican primary ballot on Aug. 20 is who will receive the party’s nod to be the county’s supervisor of elections. Who runs elections and counts the votes is always critical but in Manatee County, the outcome of the contest between the unqualified James Satcher and overqualified Scott Farrington may determine the fate our local democracy for years to go.
The Bradenton Journal endorses Scott Farrington.
The winner of the primary is all but certain to take office after the Nov. 5 general election, where they will face a qualified write-in candidate with no chance of winning. (More on than in a second.)
In addition to his more than two decades of scandal-free experience working in elections offices in Manatee and Sarasota counties, Farrington has shown to have the even demeanor and temperament vital in a supervisor of elections. Those character traits are vitally needed in the office at a time when elections and campaigns have become so contentious, what with attempts at voter suppression and other methods by some candidates and their supporters to predetermine the outcome of the election.
An elections supervisor, like former supervisors Mike Bennett and Bob Sweatt did, needs to set aside their party affiliations and run the office with one goal in mind: Maintain and nurture the public’s faith in their integrity of their elections.
We are confident that Farrington, who has drawn bipartisan, grassroots support for his campaign, will follow in that grand tradition.
Farrington should already have the job. But after Bennett retired in March, Gov. Ron DeSantis inexplicably named Satcher, then a county commissioner with little to show for his first 3 1/2 years in office other than a hyper-partisan, Christian nationalist approach to the job, to be elections supervisor for the rest of Bennett’s term. In elevating Satcher, DeSantis rejected a recommendation from Bennett that he appoint Farrington, his longtime deputy.
Farrington, who has already filed to run for the top job, resigned his position. To replace Farrington, Satcher hired the equally unqualified David Ballad, husband of Commissioner Amanda Ballard.
We had little faith that Satcher, with no experience of running any organization of any size, would ever have a road-to-Damascus moment and shed his apparent disregard and/or ignorance of American democracy and his history as a conservative cultural warrior and become a champion of fair and free elections in Manatee County. Our fears were first confirmed when after taking office, he asked for and received a budget increase of more than $800,000 from his allies on the county commission, without explaining why he needed the money except for some blathering about “voting security.” For good measure, Satcher also questioned the patriotism of Manatee County residents who choose to vote by mail, which Satcher implied was a less-than-American way to vote.
In our view, Satcher, who has drawn considerable support from semi-anonymous political committees loaded with dark money contributions, unequivocally proved himself undeserving of your vote last week in an interview with the Bradenton Times about problems with some of the new voter identification cards Satcher delivered to voters. Instead of taking responsibility for the errors, Satcher blamed Manatee County voters who, as is their right under state law, switched their party identifications in the weeks leading up to a July 22 deadline so they could vote in the Republican primary, where many races will all but be decided because of the GOP advantage in voter registration.
“Anybody who deliberately waited to change their party affiliation at the last minute to rig the primary election,” said Satcher, “Well, then that’s on them.”
No, sir, it is on you.
The only “rigging” going on is by whoever convinced a straw candidate with no chance of winning in November to file to run for elections supervisor as a write-in candidate in order to “close” the GOP primary to non-Republican voters less likely to vote for a right-wing firebrand like Satcher if the primary was “open.” (No Democrats or unaffiliated candidates filed to run for elections supervisor, which was disappointing.)
Satcher’s comments demonstrate his incompetence for the job and more seriously, his disdain for voters and the entire democratic system. Together that would make him a true danger to local elections and our democracy if he were to win a full term as elections supervisor.
Fortunately, in Scott Farrington, Manatee County Republicans, whether newcomers or longtime party members, have a clearly better choice.
Thanks for exposing the lack of integrity of Satcher. He has the ethics of a fraud. He acts as if he is the one to determine how things are done instead of the law. He pretends that voters who have exercised their rights in ways he doesn't like are doing something wrong. He is the one doing scores of things that are wrong. Satcher and those on his team are corrupt. People need to avoid anything to do with them to avoid getting scammed.
The ONLY CHOICE IS SCOTT FARRINGTON...END OF STORY...SATCHER CAN SEEK EMPLOYMENT ELSEWHERE