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Absentee Ballot Mailing Delayed

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By ELLEN GEDALIUS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 18, 2008

TAMPA - A candidate's withdrawal from a state House race this month has caused the Supervisor of Elections Office to delay the mailing of more than 19,000 absentee ballots.

The delay has prompted criticism from some local campaign officials, who complain they timed mail pieces to coincide with the expected arrival of absentee ballots in voters' mailboxes.

On July 3, write-in candidate Geraldine Emmons withdrew from the District 59 House race. That forced the elections office to redo the ballots, which were at the printer but hadn't been printed, said Kathy Harris, chief of staff for Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson.

"We lost a day and a half or two days," Harris said. The elections office didn't receive the ballots until Wednesday and planned to mail them late Thursday or today, Harris said.

That's not what candidates initially were told, however. In a memo dated July 7 - three days after Emmons withdrew from the race - Johnson told candidates absentee ballots would be mailed to overseas residents on this week on Tuesday and to domestic residents the following day.

Mitch Kates, campaign manager for two local candidates, said he timed campaign mail to coincide with those days.

He found out about the delay only when he called the elections office to ask about another mailing. He said he was told the delay was because of a technical glitch; Harris said there were no technical problems.

"If they know this is happening, don't they have a responsibility to communicate with candidates?" Kates said.
Kates works with Stephen Gorham, a school board candidate.

"I sent out 15,160 pieces of mail that all hit Thursday, and people don't have a ballot to look at," Gorham said. "As Supervisor of Elections in this county, he needs to be responsible to make sure people have a ballot when they have information on candidates sitting on their table."

Johnson acknowledged he could have done a better job of letting candidates know about the delay.

"I am a candidate, I understand the situation," Johnson said. "We'll try to find a way to accommodate that."

Despite the delay, the office still will meet the state deadline of July 22 to mail absentee ballots overseas, Harris said.

Asked why he didn't simply change the list of dates in the July 7 memo, he said: "Absolutely, we should have done that. Things are very busy right now."

Johnson is running for re-election against Phyllis Busansky, a former county commissioner.

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

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