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Elections chief files for re-election

Annie Williams has worked in the elections office for about 30 years. She says she will continue her voter education efforts.

BROOKSVILLE - She's popular, experienced and running again.

Supervisor of Elections Annie Williams, who took office in 2000, has filed to run for re-election in 2004.

Asked whether anybody could mount a successful campaign against the 47-year-old Democrat, County Commissioner Diane Rowden, also a Democrat, had a quick reply.

"No," Rowden said. "I think anybody doing that would be throwing away their money."

The supervisor of elections earns $88,000 a year.

When it comes to on-the-job experience, it's likely Williams has no equal.

She began doing clerical work in the Supervisor of Elections Office at 17 as part of a youth jobs program. The Brooksville native worked her way through the ranks and was assistant supervisor of elections at the time of her 2000 campaign.

"I just figured I had been doing the job for all those years," Williams said, "why not go for the top spot?"

Since her victory, in which she took 57 percent of the vote against Republican Gus Guadagnino, a local businessman, Williams claims two significant achievements.

She initiated an aggressive voter education campaign that, Williams said, has helped familiarize youths with voting by bringing ballot machines into schools. And Williams convinced the County Commission and School Board to align their districts.

"That was monumental," Williams said. "Since the time I started working here, in the 1970s, the supervisor of elections has been trying to get them to do that."

Simplifying the voting process, Williams said, was the primary motivation for the alignment. Often, she said, voters found it confusing to have School Board and commission representatives with different district numbers.

If re-elected, Williams said she will continue her voter education efforts and try to locate a satellite office on the east side of the county. Currently, the west side has such an office.

To date, nobody has filed to run against Williams.

- Will Van Sant covers Hernando County government and can be reached at 754-6127. Send e-mail to vansant@sptimes.com