WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Exclusively on 5 WPTV, a one-on-one interview with the new Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Wendy Sartory Link, who the governor appointed Friday, after suspending Susan Bucher, because he says she broke state laws and failed to accurately count votes.
The conversation with Sartotry Link and the governor’s office started this week, and Wednesday she was in Tallahassee talking to the governor about the position.
She’s stepping out of her private life as a lawyer, and into the public eye, reassuring she won’t run to keep her job in 2020.
“Palm Beach County did not complete the state-mandated recount until 50 days after the election,” DeSantis, a Republican said during his announcement Friday in downtown West Palm Beach. Bucher, an elected Democrat, suspended for the remainder of her two years in office.
Democrats called the move political.
“The Trump puppet DeSantis is laying the groundwork for Trump’s presidential campaign in 2020,” said Jim Bonfiglio, a Democrat who lost a recount race for HD89.
“Yes, I am a registered Republican, but I have never voted straight ticket. I am somebody who cares more about voting,” Sartory Link said.
Sartory Link runs her own law firm focused on commercial real estate in West Palm Beach. She is also on about dozen different boards locally and statewide, including the Board of Governors for the state’s university system.
She says as a business owner, she gave paid time off, so her employees could vote.
“I never told my employees which way they needed to vote. I never asked them what they’re registered as. I just said it’s important and its something I believe in strongly and you should all get out in vote,” she said.
Her first test is coming soon.
I asked her, “Are you nervous that you have to use these machines for the March 12th election, know that that they gave(election workers) such a hard time?”
“Oh yeah!” she said. “Oh, sure I am. But there’s not another option. But this is what we have and so we can’t change it before March,” she said.
So far, she promises new machines and a new website.
She says she will listen and learn to see what else needs to happen.
“I love being a change agent. I love going in and figuring out what’s the best that we can do here and how can we make what we’re doing here that much better?” she said.
The next national election: 2020. She hopes it looks different than in 2018.
“My goal is that Palm Beach County isn’t the story. What’s a win is the election goes, it goes however it goes, but Palm Beach County was not a story,” she said
You can view the entire 8+ minute exclusive interview here. (facebook.com/andrewlofholm)