St. Lucie Elections Procedures Probed in Report

The review follows the closely watched congressional race between Allen West and Patrick Murphy

Friday, Jan 4, 2013 | Updated 4:54 PM EDT

Congressman Allen West on Election "Discrepancies"

NBC 6 South Florida

A state report says election staff inexperience and inadequate procedures fueled vote-counting problems in the contentious congressional race in which Democrat Patrick Murphy ousted Republican Allen West.

The report out Friday from the Department of State focuses on St. Lucie County, where West and Murphy battled in the country's most expensive House race. The razor-thin contest gave way to two weeks of recounts, court fights and allegations that votes weren't properly counted.

Murphy was ultimately declared the winner of the race, unseating West, a first-term hero of the tea party movement. But it came after many allegations of electoral malfeasance by supporters of West.

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The Department of State review found at least four incidences in which St. Lucie voting machine memory cards failed, as well as numerous ballot-scanning errors and missing logs of ballots.

Murphy, 29, of Jupiter was sworn into office Thursday.

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