Thaxton takes on Dent's transparency

Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent took questions from Sarasota Tiger Bay Club members during a luncheon yesterday along with her challenger in the August primary election Sarasota County Commissioner Jon Thaxton.

The two candidates in the all-Republican race for the position met for the first debate at Michael’s on East where the main topic was transparency of the supervisor of elections office. Thaxton, who will vacate his commission seat this year, said Dent doesn’t promote transparency, to which he cited an email message from Bobby Walker, a staffer who had been in charge of electronic voting machines four years earlier.

The email, which contained the phrase “the babies’ diapers have been changed,” was sent to notify Dent that repairs were made to electronic voting machines. “It’s curious to me why someone would want to use coded language in a public email,” he said.

Dent, who is banking on 12 years of experience at the administrative position to sway voters, explained the staffer was not intentionally trying to conceal operational details, but just speaking the way he normally does. “You don’t know Bobby Walker,” she said to Thaxton. “But there certainly was no coding there.”

The two will meet four more times before the primary election Aug. 14.