LARGO - A Pinellas elections worker entrusted to deliver voting results on Election Day became confused about her designated drop zone and ended up at home with the uncounted totals for one precinct.
The delay was brief. The employee called the Sheriff's Office, and the cartridges containing 1,558 ballots were delivered by midnight to the election service center, where they were counted and included in this year's totals.
It was an isolated mishap in an election that came off relatively well, said Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark.
"It was a miscommunication," Clark said.
The problem stemmed from long lines at the precinct at Indian Rocks Beach City Hall.
The machine manager there became confused by instructions to change her drop-off location, which was made to accommodate approximately 300 voters who were still in line at 7 p.m. when the polls closed.
The last person voted about 10:30 p.m., Clark said.
The manager, whose name Clark did not release, was in charge of machines at the precinct. She was initially instructed to drop the cartridges at another precinct, where several precinct totals were being collected.
But the drop-off precinct had closed long before voting ended at Indian Rocks Beach, so Clark said one of her staffers called and told the manager to deliver the results to the election service center on 49th Street.
But the manager still went to the precinct, Clark said. When no one was there, she went to a location where she was supposed to drop off paperwork. That was closed, too. So the manager went home and called the Sheriff's Office, Clark said.
Clark said she does not know why the manager failed to remember the change of plans, but was sympathetic to the long hours she had put in.
"I can only guess the woman was tired," Clark said. "She went home and, at some point, called the sheriff's department. We tracked down the machine manager and sent a deputy."
Clark said the cartridges ended up at the service center about midnight. They were delivered in the required sealed pouch, which is locked and registered.
When her staff found it sealed and locked, Clark said, they did not suspect fraud.
