LOW TECH BLUNDER MAKES WINNER INTO LOSER

The Palm Beach Post's George Bennett wonders if Palm Beach County is ready for November's midterm election after what happened recently.

It seems as though a stack of 109 absentee and provisional ballots from the runoff election in Pahokee were mistakenly added to totals for Mangonia Park's runoff, resulting in...Mangonia Park councilwoman Frances Elien, who appeared to be the winner by 47 votes in unofficial returns Tuesday, had in fact lost by six votes to challenger Peggy Cook.

There were only 122 ballots cast in the Mangonia Park election.

Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson was unable to reach Elien Wednesday but left a phone message apologizing for the mistake. In an interview, he said his office would add checks and balances to avoid a similar foul-up in the future.

Elections Information Technology Manager Jeff Darter said he took 105 absentee ballots and four provisional ballots from Pahokee on Tuesday night, ran them through an optical scanner and mistakenly added the results to Mangonia Park instead of Pahokee.

"It's my fault," Darter said Wednesday