Chance decides tied Lakewood Ranch CDD election

It was the tightest election race in Manatee County.

At 11 p.m. Nov, 5, after most of the general election votes were counted, Michael Defferding was listed on Manatee County's Supervisor of Elections site as the top vote getter in the race for Community Development District 5, Seat 2, by a mere four votes over incumbent Steven Peters.

But also on the site, it said, "unofficial results."

By the next morning, Peters was up by three votes.

Knowing that overseas voters are given an extra 10 days to get their ballots to the elections office, Defferding’s wife, Sharon, called her friends in Scotland to ask if their three votes had been counted yet. 

Sharon Defferding had been told those three votes were, indeed, counted, three more votes were tallied for her husband, and the race was tied.

“It was crazy to watch,” Sharon Defferding said. 

It all led to a recount by hand, and Peters was up by one because of an "overvote."

An overvote happens when both bubbles on the ballot are filled in. In this case, the voter marked an “X” over Defferding’s bubble, and wrote “This one” with an arrow pointing to Peters’ bubble. 

But then one more vote was found for Defferding, and the race was tied again.

Both candidates eventually finished with 584 votes, so the winner was decided by a deck of cards, or in official election terms, “drawing lots.”

Each candidate chose a member of the canvassing board to pick a card on his behalf. Peters' draw was a 10. Defferding’s draw was a 5, so Peters was declared the winner. 

This will be Peters second four-year term serving CDD5. 

“There’s no clear legal definition of what drawing lots is,” said Supervisor of Elections Elect Scott Farrington. “As near as I know, or anybody has ever been able to tell me, it basically means that it has to be a random game of chance.” 

Farrington has heard of other election officials using a coin flip to decide a tie. 

Defferding has no hard feelings about losing the race. The experience gave him a behind-the-scenes look at the election process. 

“It’s about as good of a process as you could have ever hoped for,” he said. 

Defferding was able to watch the recount. He said the ballots were brought into the room in a sealed box, and every ballot was examined individually, even the undervotes. 

Undervotes happen when a voter opts not to cast a vote for a race and leaves both bubbles on the ballot blank. Even those ballots have to be checked because a partially marked bubble could be a vote that was missed by the tabulator. 

“Every vote matters,” Defferding said.

Sharon Defferding wins her race

In another tight CDD5 race, Sharon Defferding beat out incumbent Thomas Leavey for Seat 4 by 25 votes. 

CDD5 owns and maintains the common areas of the Country Club. The Defferdings moved from Virginia to Lakewood Ranch in 2018. 

Michael Defferding is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, who also served as executive vice president at WinnResidential Military Housing Services. 

Sharon Defferding is a Department of Defense retiree. Her last position was as she served in was chief of staff for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency. 

Michael Defferding currently serves as secretary for the Country Club and Edgewater Village Association, and Sharon Defferding is a member of the Community Emergency Response Team, but neither husband or wife had ever run for public office before. 

“I’ve been on the landscaping committee and safety committee,” Sharon Defferding said. “Mike’s been on the modification committee. (Serving on the board) is about helping your neighbors.” 

Sharon Defferding is, of course, a little disappointed her husband won’t be on the board with her. Peters, on the other hand, is somewhat relieved, and not just because he came out the winner. 

As elected officials, members of the CDD5 board are subject to the Sunshine Law, which states that two or more board members cannot privately discuss matters that will eventually go before the board. 

“It’s not that anybody thought that either one of them would break the law,” Peters said. “We were concerned that someone would start a lawsuit. Evidence isn’t needed to start a lawsuit.”

Out of those who cast votes, the community was practically split down the middle between the incumbents and the husband and wife team. 

However, there were 1,725 registered voters in CDD5 as of May 1, so close to a third of the community didn’t cast a vote for any of the candidates.