TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

850 Uncounted Hillsborough Ballots Counted At Last

ADVERTISEMENT

By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

cwade@tampatrib.com

Published: November 12, 2008

TAMPA - More than 850 previously uncounted absentee ballots were pulled from a vault at the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office this afternoon.

The discovery, four days after the county submitted unofficial results from the problem-plagued Nov. 4 election to the state, is unlikely to change the outcome of any key races, including Election Supervisor Buddy Johnson's loss to Phyllis Busansky.

The discovery is the latest glitch for Johnson's office. In the Nov. 4 election, some voters were only given one page of the two-page ballot, others had to wait in line for hours after a precinct ran out of ballots, and counting problems left several races in doubt more than 48 hours after polls closed.

Kathy Harris, Johnson's chief of staff, said the absentee ballots were dropped off by voters at the County Government Center on Election Day, but the ballots weren't delivered to the supervisor's office on Falkenburg Road until after 7 p.m., when the polls closed.

Because of that, they couldn't be counted until the votes from precincts were tallied.

"They couldn't be tabulated that night," she said. "So we stored them in the vault."

But the find means that the county will need to submit revised numbers to the state elections division to be certified as part of the final count from Tuesday's election.

State elections officials were not aware of the uncounted absentee ballots.

The additional absentee ballots were counted today by members of the county's vote canvassing board – Johnson and Hillsborough Commissioner Kevin White – who met to recount ballots from the Tampa Palms Community Development District race. Sunday is the deadline for final results to be submitted to the state.

The other two members of the board, Hillsborough Commissioner Rose Ferlita and Circuit Judge James Dominquez, were not participating in today's ecount.

Johnson was participating in the recount because it did not involve his race.

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT