A lawyer for mayoral candidate Gary Price suggested he would contest the city of Naples election after a machine recount confirmed Mayor Teresa Heitmann won.
Heitmann was declared the winner after mail-in, provisional and absentee ballots pushed her lead over Price, a former vice mayor, to 22 votes—a margin confirmed during a machine recount March 23.
Attorney John Cycon, who represents Price, told the Collier County Canvassing Board that 18 countywide provisional ballots discarded on March 22 could change the results when added to 89 under- and over-votes. That number includes 88 residents who voted for no mayoral candidate and one who voted for more than one, an over-vote. The overvotes are tossed out.
“That places the mayoral race in doubt and the results could be different,” Cycon told the board, asking that the board vote on it that day.
But Collier County Judge Janeice Martin, board chairman, said the board had done its work.
“If folks have concerns with it, there are other avenues for that,” Martin said of filing a lawsuit to contest the vote.
Others on the board were Supervisor of Elections Melissa Blazier and Everglades City Councilor Michael McComas, who stood in for a board member.
Tim Guerrette, who is running against Blazier, also requested a recount of the 18 provisional ballots.
The rise of PACs
Heitmann said she was relieved she kept her seat.
“The people spoke,” Heitmann said as she sat surrounded by supporters in the canvassing room at the Supervisor of Elections office. “I’m ready to serve another four years. It will be my privilege.
“We have priorities on the table,” she said of environmental, stormwater and infrastructure issues. “And building our community back—because you can’t have a community that’s divided, as it was on election day.” Some blame local farm and grocery magnate Alfie Oakes, who vowed to bring Heitmann down after a Council vote years ago involving a drag queen event.
Oakes, chairman of Citizens Awake Now PAC, backed Blankenship. Price was backed by several PACs, including Collier Citizens for Responsible Government, Gainesville-based WIN America, Naples-based Collier County Citizens’ Values and Patriots With Principles.
“I was saddened that it was such a nasty campaign, and I hope we never see that again,” said Linda Penniman, who ran a “Stop the Nastiness” campaign. “I even had signs out saying, ‘Stop the dirty campaigning. That doesn’t happen here.’ It’s really been unnecessarily nasty.”
Penniman said the mayor ran a clean campaign, telling voters, “We listen to the community. We respond to the community.”
“I think her messaging resonated: ‘We’re here to work for you, not for special interests.’ And I think that’s what did it. It resonated,” Penniman added.
Price sat through the 2-hour, 45-minute machine recount and verification process but declined to comment, saying he won’t until results are certified. Results won’t be official until the three-member canvassing board meets at 5:05 p.m. March 29 to count overseas votes and certify the election results. Blazier said fewer than a dozen city ballots were sent overseas, but none had been returned as of March 23.
After five hours, the numbers
The board worked from 11 a.m. to about 4 p.m.March 23. In the morning, elections workers placed ballots in machines for a recount of the mayoral race, and each time a duplicate ballot was rejected, the board examined it against the original and voted on whether it matched the original. Duplicate ballots are copies of ballots rejected by the machine due to rips, folds, tape, coffee stains or other issues that make ballots difficult to read.
Eight duplicates involving the mayoral race were examined and 10 duplicates were inspected for the Council races.
The room was packed with supporters, lawyers, Heitmann, Price and Naples City Clerk Patricia Rambosk, as well as representatives of the county NAACP, Republican committee and League of Women Voters. During the afternoon, six election workers sat at tables, painstakingly examining about 3,000 ballots, placing them in under- and over-vote boxes after ensuring votes for City Council members were clearly marked.
In the six-way race for three open council seats, adding provisional and mail-in ballots led to slightly higher counts for each candidate on March 22 and two more votes on March 23 after an examination of a provisional ballot showed a resident clearly voted for Tony Perez-Benitoa and Bill Kramer.
Kramer won 4,285 votes, Penniman garnered 4,171 and Berne Barton earned 3,686, so they won the seats and they’ll be sworn in April 3. Perez won 3,652 votes and Nicholas Del Rosso garnered 3,381 votes, while Garey Cooper trailed with 1,902 votes in the nonpartisan race.
A total of 21,077 residents voted for Council candidates, including 4,858 who voted for fewer than three, under-votes. An additional 27 ballots weren’t counted because they voted for more than three candidates, over-votes.
“It was a very slim margin for mayor and the Council seat,” Perez-Benitoa said before Saturday’s recount. “In the mayoral race, I think the slim margin sends a message to the mayor and the Council.”
After the recount, Rambosk, who monitored the process for the city, and a county League of Women Voters representative thanked the board, Blazier and her team for their hard work and patience during the Canvassing Board meetings in the days after the election.
NAACP President Vincent Keeys, who stayed for the entire recount, said the NAACP always focuses on the process. “Nothing is more important,” Keeys said. “It’s part of the democratic process. We’ve got to put our finger on the pulse of the community.”
The heated race prompted larger campaign coffers. Price topped the mayoral candidates with $294,216.79 in political donations and $283,790.58 in expenses from October through March 14. Heitman received $113,425 in contributions and spent $63,899.01, while Blankenship’s contributions totaled $87,571.96 and he spent $77,560.41.
Final campaign reports haven’t been posted by the city, and those expenses don’t include PAC spending on Price or Blankenship.
