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Putting The Flaw In Flawless

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By Daniel Ruth

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 30, 2008

When he looked up and saw Phyllis Busansky glaring at him across the room Tuesday night, Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson had to feel as if he was stuck between the mother of all annoyed ex-wives meets Madame Defarge - only without the sense of whimsy.

Busansky not only wants Johnson's job, she probably wouldn't mind his head on a pike. The supervisor tends to have that effect on people. It's part of his charm.

At that moment the other evening, Johnson was doing what he does best - trying to explain yet another of the stumblebum moments within his office that tend to follow him around more than the paparazzi stalking Brad and Angelina and their 37 children.

Apparently the problem on primary election night was that Johnson's new voting machines had indeed operated with such perfection they made a Marine precision drill team look like a Three Stooges pie fight.

Celebration Or Despair?

Yep, Johnson's equipment hummed along like a thing of beauty. The brouhaha seemed to be in getting information as to who won and lost out of the gizmos so that everyone could figure out whether to start drinking heavily in celebration, or despair.

Just a few short weeks ago Johnson, who more and more seems to be turning into Hillsborough County's answer to Mayberry's hapless Floyd the Barber, confidently appeared on "Flashpoint," hosted by WFTS, Channel 28's Brendan McLaughlin, crowing repeatedly how his new machines had operated "flawlessly" during a recent Plant City election.

In fact, Johnson used variations on the word "flawless" so much that you have thought he was talking about Sophia Loren, instead of a parochial election involving 12 strawberry farmers.

Not to put too fine a factitious spin on this, but at the end the day the biggest job skill required of the supervisor of elections is the ability to count and secondarily, after all the counting has taken place, to be able to tell the public what the numbers are.

Really now, how tough should this be?

He Knew Nothing!

Alas, for Johnson, his sparkling new $6 million optical scan voting machines started acting up shortly after the polls closed, stalling the release of ballot totals, a problem that persisted into the evening.

It's entirely possible the machine boo-boo had absolutely nothing to do with Johnson's competence and/or lack thereof to do the job of supervising elections. Rather, blame might well fall to Premier Election Solutions, the company that sold the equipment and software programs to Hillsborough County.

At least that's Johnson's story and he's sticking to it, which is only understandable when you have Phyllis Busansky, the Big Bird of the Hustings, glowering at the supervisor as if he was an errant beagle who just ate the cable remote.

Interestingly enough, the next opportunity for Johnson to put the new equipment to the test will be the November elections, which will include his own race to preserve his job against Busansky.

This could well turn out to be a "flawless" election administered by Johnson to prove he really can walk and count votes at the same time - and it might be too late. Bummer.

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog.

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