As if to torture candidates and political junkies, the elections canvassing board decided to stop counting at about midnight last night and will resume today, according to sources. Fifty four of the 779 precincts are yet to be tallied.
Apparently, Broward County Mayor Lois Wexler made the inprecedented decision. I don't like it -- dammit you count until you get the job done. Ninnies. But at this point it is what it is.
Now onto baseball. I spoke with John Rodstrom this morning and he says that of the five precincts remaining to be counted, four should go to him. In other words, it looks very much like he's a lock, though he only leads Carlton Moore by 299 votes at this point. Moore showed his political muscle, picking up the anti-Rodstrom, pro-development vote among whites in Fort Lauderdale. The key to Rodstrom's victory, if it holds, is his showing in Bryan Caletka's backyard. He won Plantation and even the Pine Island Ridge area in Caletka's supposed stomping ground, Davie. What a race.
I still think the sheriff's race is up for grabs. Israel leads Lemack by 937 votes with a lot of votes left out there to count. As I said, it's a white-knuckler. Other close races:
-- In the District 1 school board race, Ann Murray leads Rick Saltrick by just 71 votes with 94 of 116 precincts reporting.
-- County Court Judge Catalina Avalos trails challenger Ian Richards by just 372 votes with 87,410 counted.
-- In the race for Steve Geller's state senate seat, Eleanor Sobel holds a 380 vote lead over Ken Gottlieb. In a good three-person race, Tim Ryan is also less than 1000 votes away from Sobel, though he'd need a miracle at this point to pull it off.