ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The winner of the special election for House District 40, RaShon Young, was announced after the votes were counted on Tuesday, Sept. 2.
On Friday, the results were officially certified by the Canvassing Board and the Orange County Supervisor of Elections.
The District 40 seat was previously held by LaVon Bracy Davis, who left that position to run for Senate District 15. It was left open due to the passing of the late Sen. Geraldine Thompson. Bracy Davis also won in that special election. But there were problems before election day. Young’s name was left off the sample ballots that went out in August.
For voters in House District 40, the informational sample ballot mailer mailed out, incorrectly listed Travaris McCurdy as the Democratic candidate in the House District 40 race. The correct and certified Democratic candidate’s name should have been listed as RaShon Young.
He garnered 55.44% of voters’ support in the Democratic Special Primary Election on June 24. The error only appeared on the informational sample ballot mailer sent to voters who had not yet requested a vote-by-mail ballot.
When discovered, the Orange County Supervisor of Elections immediately issued a statement, saying in part, “The Orange County Supervisor of Elections office takes full responsibility for this mistake. We tracked the error and found it originated in our office during artwork creation for the printing process,” said Blake Summerlin, a spokesperson for the Supervisor’s office."
On Friday, News 6 received documents relating to the cost of correcting the sample ballot printing error that affected 88,972 voters.
According to those documents obtained, the Orange County Supervisor of Elections office paid almost $80,000 for the first mailing, which included both correct and incorrect sample ballots. The reprinting and mailing of correct sample ballots cost another $30,131.27. This was the first major election for the new Supervisor of Elections Karen Castor Dental.
News 6’s Laverne McGee spoke with her exclusively about the cost of the correction, asking her if she had anything to say to concerned taxpayers.
Castor Dental said, “I just know that we have put in place other steps to make sure that these kinds of mistakes don’t happen again. And, we had a very successful election, and I’m really proud of the team that we have here.”
Spokesperson Blake Summerlin was asked about the cost to taxpayers. He was asked about the total cost for the original mailers plus the new mailers and the postage costs.
Summerlin said, ”So those two numbers combined for 112,000 bucks.”
In the next two weeks, all voters in Orange County will be receiving a letter in the mail from OCSE asking them to verify and update their address.