On October 27, 2016, the Lee County Supervisor of Elections (SOE) acknowledged an error on the ballot for approximately 500 voters in the Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District. The ballot design of the November 8th ballot that affects these voters does not include the candidates running for office in the District. All other applicable contests appear on the ballot.
Lee SOE immediately contacted the mapping vendor, International Computer Works to help investigate the cause of this error. The findings of that initial meeting were that there was an “autocorrection” error in the mapping software.
Since the initial report of this incident, the Lee County Supervisor of Elections office has continued a detailed investigative dialog with the vendor. The final determination for the cause of the error showed that it was not related to the GIS mapping program provided by the International Computer Works, but instead by a manual data entry issue.
The Lee County Supervisor of Elections Office is currently reviewing our vendor’s recommendations to insure this issue will not reoccur.
This year, three board seats are up for grabs, but some voters never saw it on their ballot.
Katy Hoover who is running for seat 5 in the Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District hopes that this issue is resolved quickly by sending out a supplemental ballot.
Nat Stout who is also running for seat 5 in the Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District as the incumbent, said he is aware of the issue and hopes no voter is left out
Mo Yasin who is running for seat 3 in the Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District, did not even know about the issue into the Lehigh Acres Gazette told him. Yasin, said this is so foolish, how could this happen.
The Lehigh Acres Gazette tried to reach Ken Thompson running for seat 3 and Dewy Tyler and Michael Welch who are running for seat 1.
The Lee County Supervisor of Elections Office is dedicated to serving our public. We strive for success and excellence in shaping the future of voting in Lee County by empowering every eligible citizen with the tools and education necessary to exercise his or her right to vote. We endeavor to guarantee the integrity and accuracy of every election by administering fair and appropriate voting procedures in compliance with federal and state election laws. For more information about elections, candidates, voter registration, early voting, vote-by-mail requests, precinct locations, poll workers, and outreach events, please visit our website www.lee.vote or call LEE VOTE (533-8683).