TAMPA - Hillsborough elections workers worked overtime Monday to process absentee ballots, closed the book on a record-setting early voter turnout, and braced to handle another 325,000 voters during today's general election.
Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson also adopted a policy designed to prevent unnecessary delays from voter challenges when the county's 359 precincts open today at 7 a.m.
Johnson said the policy, which deals with the intense scrutiny anticipated at Florida polling places, is generally in line with guidelines formulated by Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood.
Johnson said two pollworkers of separate party affiliations have been appointed at each precinct to review voters' paperwork and make decisions on challenges at a table away from registration areas and voting machines.
"There will be no stoppage of voting," Johnson said Monday. "We're not pulling everybody off to handle challenges."
Johnson said he hopes that process and the huge turnout of early voters will help smooth the way for a general election in which 75 percent or more of the county's 627,624 registered voters are expected to cast ballots.
Monday, on the last day of early voting, 270 voters, some with folding chairs or stools, lined up at the Elections Service Center on Falkenburg Road before the voting site opened at 10 a.m. The first were there at 8 a.m.
Another dozen voters stood in line to hand in absentee ballots, which, except for overseas ballots, must be in the hands of elections officials by 7 p.m. today, when the polls close.
"I only made my choices yesterday," said Michael LaGassey, owner of a Tampa construction company, as he handed in his absentee ballot. "I'm glad I'm not stuck in the voting line."
Of 73,533 requests for absentee ballots, elections officials counted 59,913 turned in by Monday at 6 p.m.
At the College Hill Library in East Tampa, the line of early voters snaked out the front door and around the parking lot. The wait to vote at College Hill exceeded 41/2 hours, according to pollworkers.
Johnson said he heard about "commotions" and cars being vandalized late Monday afternoon at the College Hill Library and drove there himself to survey the situation.
Johnson said he even tried to register to vote early himself while he was at the library sometime after 6 p.m., but then he noticed it was after the voting site's normal closing time and asked poll workers to void his registration. He intends to vote today at his precinct in Plant City.
Through 6 p.m. Monday, 82,586 voters had cast early ballots at Hillsborough's 11 sites, and others were still in line.
"It's an overwhelming endorsement of the early voting program's success and popularity," Johnson said. "And it reduces the stress on the system on Election Day by a quarter. That's a big deal."
As elections workers tested touch screen voting machines and updated precinct voting registers Monday, political workers waved signs and handed out brochures.
Locally, two races for the County Commission and a pair of contests for constitutional offices highlight the ballot for Hillsborough voters.
Two seats are open on the seven-member County Commission that could alter its partisan majority. Democrat and former Tampa City Council member Bob Buckhorn faces Republican Brian Blair, a former gym owner and wrestler, in the bid to replace longtime Democrat Jan Platt.
Meanwhile, Republican school teacher Mark Sharpe is facing Democrat land-use activist Denise Layne, as well as strip club owner Joe Redner, who is running without party affiliation. The winner replaces Democrat Pat Frank, who is leaving midterm to run for Hillsborough clerk of the circuit court.
Incumbent county Commissioners Ken Hagan and Ronda Storms are both facing opposition in the general election, but from candidates who have had trouble raising money. Hagan faces Democrat David Cutting, a graphic artist from Carrollwood, and Storms faces Jean Batronie, a hypnotherapist running without party affiliation.
In her bid for the clerk's job, Frank, a former school board member and state legislator, faces Republican Chris Hart, a former banker and one-time colleague of Frank's on the commission.
Johnson's election chief job has also drawn interest. Johnson, appointed to the position last year by Gov. Jeb Bush after his predecessor, Pam Iorio, ran for Tampa mayor, has faced a series of problems leading to the general election.
In the Aug. 31 primary, a computer glitch that could have been detected caused tabulation to be delayed until nearly dawn the next day. Workers later discovered 245 votes were never counted because a worker had left a voting machine in the "test" mode. Johnson promised management changes after each setback.
Democratic challenger Rob MacKenna, a computer programmer with Eckerd Corp., called for Johnson's resignation after learning Johnson withheld information about the 245 lost votes.
Because of the potential for voter challenges, more provisional ballots are being allocated than usual, according to Dan Nolan, Johnson's chief of staff.
Johnson and Nolan will staff a command center at the Elections Service Center today, along with police and sheriff's officials who can dispatch uniformed officers to any voting precinct if trouble breaks out. After complaints from the NAACP about possible police intimidation of voters, Johnson said uniformed officers would be kept away from polling places unless needed to keep the peace.
-- Jeff Testerman can be reached at 813 226-3422 or by e-mail at testerman@sptimes.com
