Officials say the election went smoothly, except for a few missing cartridges and some late results.
By BILL VARIAN
Published March 11, 2004
TAMPA - Buddy Johnson's first solo flight counting votes as the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections went smoothly, for the most part, on Tuesday.
There were some bumps, and final results came in slowly, with unofficial tallies recorded sometime after midnight despite technology designed to speed up the count.
"We consciously decided to make sure we did things right," Johnson said. "I wanted to do it right, not do it speedy."
The bumps showed up at day's end, as elections workers reported to the Elections Service Center to assemble cartridges that plug into touch-screen voting machines and record the votes. As workers gathered up the cartridges, they realized two were missing.
Using a checklist, workers tracked the missing cartridges to two voting machines, one in Citrus Park, another near Ybor City. Clerks were dispatched to the polling places, where the cartridges were found, still in the machines. Those votes were added to the final results.
The postelection canvassing board also learned of another bump. One machine registered two "under votes," instances where people logged on as voters do but then never cast a ballot. Board members found the machine was used by poll workers for a demonstration, but it shouldn't have been.
Johnson said he was still looking into why two cartridges were left in machines and how one machine was improperly used for demonstrations. He said he will act accordingly, which likely will mean additional training for the poll workers in question.
Meanwhile, one of Johnson's opponents in this fall's election said his volunteers encountered complaints from voters about difficulty casting ballots. Rob MacKenna said the difficulties underscore a need for a paper receipt or trail to ensure voters' selections are recorded as they intend.
