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Voters Question Logo On Hillsborough Sample Ballot

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By ELLEN GEDALIUS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 14, 2008

  Buddy Johnson

TAMPA - Is it a sample ballot or a campaign piece?

Some registered voters say they had trouble telling the difference.

Hillsborough County's voters last week received their sample ballots for the Aug. 26 primary in the mail. In the return address field, a logo with the word "VOTE" in large, capital letters is juxtaposed next to Buddy Johnson's name.

Johnson, the elections supervisor, is running for re-election.

"I got the sample ballot, and I couldn't believe it," said Ronald Cohn, a lawyer who lives in South Tampa. "This is really misleading. It shouldn't give the impression this is favoring one candidate over another. It really just screams 'Vote for Buddy Johnson.'"

Cohn said he made a contribution to the campaign of Johnson's opponent, Phyllis Busansky, but isn't otherwise involved.

For years, the elections office has used a red-and-blue logo with the words "it's up to YOU." The first three words wrap around a circle. The word "YOU" is in capital letters and larger print.

The logo is used extensively on the elections office Web site and employee business cards.

The logo on the sample ballot is similar but now has the word "VOTE" in bigger capital letters in the middle of the circle. That version of the logo also was used on a mailer about absentee ballots, though the logo was not placed near Johnson's name.

About 504,000 sample ballots were mailed in Hillsborough County. They cost about $160,000 to design, print and mail. They are paid for with money from the Federal Help America Vote Act.

The sample ballot does include language saying it is the "official sample ballot of Hillsborough County."

Johnson did not return telephone calls Tuesday or Wednesday. He responded to a list of e-mailed questions by saying only that he has "little time for anything other than successfully running early voting and the other aspects of the office."

Kathy Harris, chief of staff for the elections office, said the "VOTE" logo has been used for at least two years. She provided examples of the logo on letterhead and other materials dated 2007. In those examples, the word "VOTE" wasn't directly next to Johnson's name.

"We didn't change the logo for the sample ballots," Harris said. "Buddy isn't even on the sample ballot. We don't think that way."

Some people in town aren't so sure. One resident wrote a Tampa Tribune letter to the editor complaining that the sample ballot "looks like campaign literature."

Marcella O'Steen said she, too, thought her sample ballot was a campaign piece.

"At first glance, that's what I thought," said O'Steen, president of the Balm Civic Association. "The emblem looked like 'VOTE Buddy.' As a taxpayer, I don't like seeing this happening. He's using taxpayer dollars to promote himself."

O'Steen said she was talking on her own behalf, not as a representative of her civic association.

Busansky said she has fielded at least a dozen phone calls from supporters about the issue. "This just appalls me," Busansky said.

Susan MacManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida, said she understands why some voters are upset.

"I see exactly what people are complaining about," MacManus said after looking at a sample ballot. "I can see where people might get confused or upset."

The Tribune reviewed sample ballots from Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota and Orange counties, all counties whose elections supervisors are up for re-election.

The Pasco, Sarasota and Orange County ballots all included the name of the elections supervisor in the return address area. None included the word "vote" near the election supervisors' names.

Pasco Elections Supervisor Brian Corley, appointed to the office in 2007, used the office's seal next to his name in the return address area because that's what had been done in the past, he said.

"We liked it; we stuck with it," Corley said.

Corley declined to comment about Hillsborough's sample ballot but said he never considered putting the word "vote" next to his name. Like Johnson, Corley has a challenger in the November election.

The Pinellas sample ballot includes a page of voting information. "Vote, Make Freedom Count" is written above Deborah Clark's name and title. Clark is running for re-election.

Johnson, a Republican, has raised about $45,000 for his campaign. Busansky, a Democrat, has raised about $91,000, according to the most recent campaign finance reports.

Reporter Ellen Gedalius can be reached at (813) 259-7679 or egedalius@tampatrib.com.

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