State Rep. Webster Barnaby wins election recount, faces allegation of voter intimidation

A tight, bitter race between two incumbent state representatives has ended with a recount and allegations of voter intimidation being levied against the victor.

State Rep. Webster Barnaby defeated Rep. Elizabeth Fetterhoff by 30 votes in a rare incumbent-on-incumbent Republican primary. After election night, the margin was 26 votes but Barnaby picked up four additional votes in two recounts completed late Friday night — one by machine, one by hand.

Barnaby finished with 7,450 votes, while Fetterhoff received 7,420 votes, a margin of 0.22%.

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With the Republican nomination secured, Barnaby, of Deltona, will move on to face Democrat Rick Karl, a DeLand resident, in the race for the seat representing much of West Volusia County.

Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Lisa Lewis also announced the results of a machine recount of a close race for Ponce Inlet Town Council Seat 4: Joe Villanella got 819 votes to defeat David Israel, 813 votes, to win by a 6-vote margin, the same return as on election night.

Fetterhoff said she is preparing a complaint against Barnaby, who she said was "intimidating" voters at polling places by violating the no-solicitation boundary and chatting them up.

State law requires candidates and campaigners to stand no closer than 150 feet from the polling place while making final appeals to voters. Senate Bill 90, addressing election security and passed by Republicans in the Legislature in 2021, extended that boundary from 100 to 150 feet.

Fetterhoff said Barnaby disregarded that law both at the early voting site at The Center in Deltona and on election day at the Sanborn Center in DeLand.

"I witnessed some of it," Fetterhoff said. "He would talk to voters inside the building."

At one point, Fetterhoff, said, the Supervisor of Elections Office responded to complaints and had Barnaby move back behind the boundary. But once those elections officials left, Barnaby went back to violating the boundary.

She said other witnesses were preparing affidavits.

"It obviously gave him an advantage," she said. "If you are elected to be able to write legislation, it's important to be able to follow the law.

"It makes me sick just seeing it," Fetterhoff said, adding she is "bound and determined to follow the law to a T."

Neither Barnaby nor his spokeswoman, Erin Isaac, responded to questions about Fetterhoff's claims on Friday and Saturday.

Lewis said Saturday she was aware of Fetterhoff's claims. Lewis directed the Fetterhoff camp to file a complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Fetterhoff's complaints follow an ad campaign by Barnaby alleging Fetterhoff of taking campaign contributions from "liberals and lobbyists," voting for their projects, then paying herself "thousands of dollars from her campaign through a company she owns."

"Elizabeth Fetterhoff. She's not just liberal. She's corrupt," the ad proclaimed.

Fetterhoff said the fundraising company she co-founded with her husband, John P. Ward III, was vetted with attorneys to ensure its legality. She called Barnaby "desperate."

The recount took nearly 14 hours on Friday, finishing a little before midnight.

"Although the process was tedious and time consuming, I am pleased to present the results that could not have been accomplished without dedicated canvassing board members and my staff," Lewis said in a statement. "I would also like to thank the candidates for their patience while the recount was conducted."

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia election recount: Webster Barnaby defeats Elizabeth Fetterhoff