SSO deputy attempts to unseat supervisor of elections

**News Flash** · 10-28-2008, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by Doug Sword, Herald-Tribune

Democrat Barry Sullivan is counting on there being more than a handful of voters unhappy with Dent.

Dent's office had sent out 69 erroneous absentee ballots to a North Port precinct, leaving off the high-profile state Senate race between Morgan Bentley and Nancy Detert.

They point to her blaming the 18,000 undervotes in the District 13 congressional election two years ago on negative campaigning instead of the findings of several academics that the ballot was poorly designed.

In a recent debate, Sullivan pledged to be accountable to voters.

"If something goes wrong, I will stand before you and say 'That is my fault, I didn't test it enough, I didn't train my people enough. I'm not going to start blaming the voters, the county commissioners or whoever else.'"

While Sullivan has purchased TV ads, he has to overcome the advantage that Dent's eight years in office have given her in terms of name recognition.

Dent has raised $59,300, although $46,000 of that is from loans she made to her campaign and another $5,500 from expenses she has covered out of her own pocket. Sullivan reports loaning $10,000 to his campaign, which has raised $22,667 overall.

Sullivan is a lieutenant in the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, where he oversees the evidence room. Being responsible for 800,000 pieces of evidence involves being able to prove the chain of custody of the items, a task not unlike an elections officials who must certify that voting equipment has not been tampered with, he says.

Dent is a former law office manager who first won her supervisor of elections post in 2000.

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