Manatee elections office worker: 'We need to vote James Satcher out!'
Writer of open letter complains of numerous ways they say elections supervisor is mismanaging office leading up to Aug. 20 primary.
Below is an open letter that a worker with the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office sent to The Bradenton Journal this week, complaining of how James Satcher has run the office since Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him in April after Mike Bennett retired.
Some of the issues mentioned in the letter have been discussed in some press accounts (here, here and here, for example), but this is the first time I have seen them detailed by a current employee in the elections office. The Journal knows the writer’s name and has confirmed they work for the elections office. They asked their name not be disclosed because of fears of possible retaliation. We agreed to the request.
The letter has been slightly edited for style and clarity.
Satcher is seeking a full term in this year’s election, and faces challenger Scott Farrington, Bennett’s former longtime chief aide, in the Republican primary on Aug. 20.
I work in the supervisor of elections office for Manatee County. I feel that the public needs to be aware of the state of the office since James Satcher was appointed to the position in April.
My co-workers and I are just hanging on until Scott Farrington comes back. We are worried about the way the office has been functioning for the past three and a half months, and we are just hoping that we will be able to get through this next election without any major problems. Most of us will be very surprised if that happens. If it does, it will be because of the members of the staff who are loyal to our jobs and the people of Manatee County. We are TRYING to ensure that the election is run legally and fairly, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to see whether our efforts will pay off or will be wasted because of the way Satcher has changed the office since he got here.
It is hard to watch what is happening here without being able to freely provide feedback to Satcher and the people he has brought in, but we can’t say anything for fear of what might happen. One of the staff has already quit. She oversaw the vote-by-mail system and the processing of those votes has already suffered. All votes used to be processed each day as they came in, but they now sit for days waiting for someone to handle them. One of Satcher’s newest hires — another person who has absolutely no experience at all with elections — has been made the manager over vote by mail, and we wonder if those votes will get properly recorded. Rather than being processed in a timely manner, they sit in a locked room overnight. This happens way too often.
Satcher shows little regard for election rules and office standard procedures. The first thing he did, even before he was sworn in, was to enter the office without authorization. That triggered an alarm and caused a panicked response by office staff and a response by the police. Another incident was when the alarm to the locked hardware room went off. Satcher had tried to gain entry to the room without anybody else being there. That is a huge no-no. This is the room that holds the secure machines that are used to check people in to polling places and to tabulate the results. Nobody is allowed in there alone. When told this, Satcher’s response was that HE was allowed to do it.
That was not the only case where Satcher has gone against freely offered, common-sense advice. He was advised not to send out a full mailing of new voter registration cards, but he wanted to do it simply to make sure that his name was in the hands of every voter in the county. The statute he cited as justification does not refer to the SOE’s name as being required to be changed on the cards, but he wanted that done, so he did it. As part of that mailing he included his introduction letter. This appeared to all of us to be a thinly veiled campaign letter, and he was informed of that, but he wanted it done so he did it. Regarding that mailing, we were given a script to follow for the calls we started receiving from people questioning the need for the cards or the letter. He wanted us to tell the callers that they were sent to fulfill a statutory requirement, but since we knew that was not the case, we felt extremely uneasy using that script at all.
Most of the time we keep our opinions about the things he has been doing wrong to ourselves, with one notable exception. Satcher started out trying to hold monthly staff meetings and weekly supervisor meetings. During one of the meetings with the supervisors he informed them of his plan to get two satellite offices up and running, including training the staff for those offices. When one staff member said that it was crazy to try doing that during our busiest time of every four-year cycle, he had a temper tantrum in the meeting. He yelled at her, saying that if she had anything to say disagreeing with what he was presenting she should save it for a private conversation later. He called her unprofessional (for saying that it was crazy — when it was) while he was the one expecting a room full of yes-men and yelling when someone opposed his crazy ideas.
The satellite offices, the new voter cards and new software, which may not even be implemented properly before this election, are all part of his $840,000 budget increase for the last three months of the fiscal year. It appears to us that he is trying to spend that money as fast as possible so he can justify a similar (that is fourfold) increase for next year. He refers to the Sarasota SOE budget and we can only wonder if he is trying to justify his expenditures and to try to catch up to them. There have been other changes as part of the spending spree that we feel can only be attributed to his overinflated ego. He spent one day roaming around the office trying to find the perfect place for future photo opportunities. He settled on a conference room and had the walls of that room painted painter-tape blue because it “makes his eyes pop!” He ordered a podium for that room so he could use that location with the new wall color for press releases.
His overhaul of our workplace speaks to what we view as an overvalued sense of worth and knowledge. When he first arrived, he walked in KNOWING that there were problems and looking for ways to overhaul a well-functioning office.He has been trying to remake the place the way he wants, seemingly without regard for what might be necessary. At the same time, he has displayed a blatant disregard for doing what we know is right — for performing as a leader. He is very rarely in the office anymore.
His press manager — why would you need a press manager in an office like ours? — produces statements for him constantly. We don’t see those, but have to wonder if they are helping him go out to speak to various churches and other groups DURING WORK HOURS! We have heard that he has been campaigning while getting paid to do his job and wonder when he will find the time to actually do the job that he lucked into. Frankly, we are relieved he is not in the office much lately since we are able to get things done much more efficiently when he is not here.
Satcher has had his newly hired “PR manager”, AKA his “campaign manager,” manipulate the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Facebook page to only paint him (and his popping eyes) in a good light while maintaining a small amount of deniability. They posted about the judge dropping the lawsuit against him, and then limited who could comment. They “accidentally” removed the post letting people know that they had until a specific date to change their party affiliation to be able to vote in this race, then allowed that post to go back up at 4:20 the afternoon of the last day.
To that point, he is constantly calling people who are switching to a Republican affiliation as cheaters trying to rig the election, when it was actually his political handlers who got the primary closed by entering a serial write-in candidate in the race.
Scott Farrington was the most honest leader I could imagine. He always followed the rules and statutes to a T, including both laws and internal procedures. He did everything with transparency and integrity, and always kept the rights of the voters foremost. James Satcher, in stark contrast, seems to not care about the voters and only appears to do exactly what he wants. Satcher does everything behind closed doors when he is here, and this is a complete turnabout from the past administration. My co-workers and I had never before worried about the integrity of this office. I was proud to work here. I can’t say that anymore. I am embarrassed to be a part of this sham that I believe is heading in the opposite direction from where it should be going.
I know this is long, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more about the type of person that Satcher has shown himself to be. My characterizations are based on my opinions, but they are backed up by facts and examples as shown in what I have written here. I wish I could say more, but I need to get at least this much out to the people of Manatee County. Every day something else happens that illustrates Satcher’s lack of competence and integrity, and shows that he is unfit for this job.
The bottom line is, WE NEED TO VOTE JAMES SATCHER OUT!!! WE NEED SCOTT FARRINGTON BACK!!!
I appreciate the bravery & courage of this elections worker for giving us a glimpse into their nightmarish situation. Satcher is an egotistical, idiotic, incompetent, corrupt, lunatic who is all out abusing his position of power like the temper-tantrum throwing little dictator wannabe he is.
As Shakespeare has said “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
Many (hopefully most) Manatee voters see Satcher for what he is…an incompetent grifter with a bad temper and an inflated ego.
The SOE employee is to be commended for giving the County residents a painful insight into the havoc that the Grifter has caused.
This can be stopped on August 20th. Vote Satcher OUT OF OFFIICE!! Vote for Scott Farrington!! Vote as if the integrity of our elections depend on it….because it does.
Defeating Satcher will be the “revenge” of citizens who demand elections that are conducted with integrity, honesty and impartiality.
Let’s roll Manatee County voters!! Kick Satcher out of the SOE position.