- November 17, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
After tallying county residents’ votes on election night, the Flagler County Canvassing Board held a vote of its own: to remove County Commission Chairman George Hanns from his position on the board.
Hanns had been incorrectly quoted as endorsing incumbent County Commission candidate Frank Meeker in a mailer sent out by Meeker’s campaign — Canvassing Board members are not permitted to endorse — and Elections Supervisor Kimberle Weeks brought the issue to the board’s attention at a Canvassing Board meeting Nov. 3, along with a request for Hanns’ removal.
Both Hanns and Meeker said in interviews Tuesday that the quote was attributed to Hanns in error.
“I can assure you that I endorsed nobody; I’ve never endorsed anyone since I’ve been in office since 1992,” Hanns said at the Nov. 3 meeting. “It was inadvertently sent out, without my knowledge or permission. I can assure you I’m well aware of being on the Canvassing Board, and the rules that apply to that.”
The text on the mailer was a draft quote used as a placeholder while the Meeker campaign sought an endorsement from Sen. Ron DeSantis, Meeker said. At the same time, a photo of Meeker and Hanns together at a veterans event, an image that was supposed to appear in a photo collage, was placed by the text.
The unfinished mailer was printed and sent out, an error Meeker and his campaign didn’t realize until they caught it during an NAACP candidate forum.
“We made a mistake and then corrected it,” Meeker said Tuesday.
Meeker’s campaign collected the unsent mailers that contained the quote, and then, at a cost of about $800, printed and sent new mailers with a correction that read: “Dear Friends, in one of several different mailers recently sent, a political ad inadvertently appeared to include an endorsement from Commissioner George Hanns. Commissioner Hanns, as chairman of the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners and a member of the County’s Canvassing Board, cannot, and has not, endorsed any candidate in this election, including me. Please disregard the error we made and accept my apology as well. Frank J. Meeker, Candidate for Flagler County BOCC, District 2.”
Meeker also called the Department of State and talked to an elections lawyer about the issue, he said, and was told he should take all reasonable measures to correct the error but did not have to fill out any forms.
But Tuesday evening, Hanns said a document arrived at the Canvassing Board containing an advisory opinion from the Florida Division of Elections.
The document was actually two opinions issued for cases in 2008 and 2009. County Attorney Al Hadeed said the opinion from the 2009 case, signed by former Division of Elections director Donald Palmer, was the one discussed at the meeting.
It says the state’s election code prohibits a Canvassing Board member from being a candidate or “active participant” in a political campaign, and, citing a previous opinion, clarifies what “active participant” means.
“We believe the focus must be on the modifier ‘active’ in the phrase ‘active participant,’” it reads. “If the member is a passive participant, the member would not be disqualified from being a member of a canvassing board.”
The opinion goes on to say that the division does “not believe that a monetary contribution to a candidate’s campaign by itself makes a canvassing board member an ‘active participant’ in the campaign.” It does not directly address a case where a Canvassing Board member is erroneously quoted as endorsing a candidate.
Hanns said Moore Stens read the document Tuesday then voted with Weeks to have Hanns removed from the board.
“I must say that it did hurt, but she was merely voting what was said by (the Division of Elections’) opinion,” Hanns said in an interview Wednesday morning.
After the vote, Hanns said in the interview: “I went on the record. I said, ‘You should step aside, Ms. Weeks, because of your personal involvement with the Ronald Reagan group and keeping them in touch with everything that’s going on before the county even knows about it.’”
Hanns said there were also other reasons he thought Weeks should step aside.
“I think she should step aside, because she’s under investigation by the FDLE, and that would imply some impropriety by the supervisor of elections, who is supposed to remain neutral,” he said. “That’s a very serious crime when FDLE investigates. I’m just a victim of her style — that’s her style; she enjoys inflicting pain on people. I wish her well.”
Weeks wrote Wednesday morning in an email to the Palm Coast Observer: “Judge Stens and I agreed that, due to the appearance of impropriety, that Mr. Hanns should step down. There was no motion made for me to step down nor is there any reason why I should. This is not an issue about me; it is an issue about Mr. Hanns. ... All I want is to do the best job I can for the people who elected me and to maintain their confidence.”
Hanns is the second county commissioner to leave the Canvassing Board in the past month over an issue brought up by Weeks.
At an Oct. 20 County Commission meeting, Hanns’ previous Canvassing Board alternate, Commissioner Charlie Ericksen, agreed to leave his position on the board in response to a complaint by Weeks that a $50 donation he made in July to Meeker’s re-election campaign, though not illegal, could be seen as a conflict of interest. Ericksen was replaced as alternate by Revels.
Weeks, at a previous meeting, also asked to have Revels — at that time serving as an alternate for Hanns — removed from the Canvassing Board because Revels is the subject of an Ethics Commission investigation concerning whether she properly disclosed, or needed to, a potential conflict of interest before a County Commission vote on purchasing the old hospital building.
Weeks also has attempted unsuccessfully to have County Attorney and Canvassing Board Attorney Al Hadeed replaced with a new Canvassing Board attorney.
To view a copy of the document from the Division of Elections that was submitted to the Canvassing Board Nov. 4, CLICK HERE.
