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Politics

Last-minute letters on polling site switch never sent

Election officials say they didn't have official permission for the change, but did it anyway.

By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published March 8, 2007

TAMPA - In a news release before Tuesday's election, the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Election's Office said it sent letters to voters in two precincts about their polling place being switched for Tuesday's city elections.

But it never mailed the letters.

Officials decided not to send them because they didn't have required permission from the U.S. Department of Justice to make the switch. Yet they let people vote at the new place anyway.

The lack of notification was one complaint that surfaced in the wake of Tuesday's voting, but Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson said "turnout was actually twice as high as the estimated citywide turnout at Precincts 215 and 217."

In reality, 8 percent of voters voted in precinct 215 and nearly 21 percent voted in 217. That compares with nearly 16 percent turnout citywide.

It doesn't appear that the outcome of any of the races would have been different if more voters came to the precincts, according to an analysis of the results.

Elections officials said they received just one complaint from a voter other than the mayor and newspaper reporters on Tuesday, and they maintained that voting went smooth in 215 and 217 under the circumstances.

The polling site for Precincts 215 and 217 had been the Tampa Korean United Methodist Church, 4212 N Boulevard.

But during the Nov. 7 general election, poll worker Lucy Lamy was injured when a small cross she was trying to move fell and struck her forehead.

The injury did not appear serious, according to Jong Park, a University of South Florida professor and church official who handled polling place matters at the church. But Lamy said she wanted to visit an emergency room.

On Dec. 28, the church received a letter from Johns Eastern Co. of Sarasota, the insurance adjustor for Hillsborough County, saying there might be a liability issue at the church.

Assistant Supervisor of Elections Jim Reed said officials tried to assure the church they carried no liability. But Kathy Harris, attorney for the Supervisor of Election's Office, said concerns prompted the church in January to no longer be a polling place, an account the church disputes.

"The church never asked that the polling places be moved," Park said.

Regardless, the election's office began hunting for a new polling site and found Smyrna Baptist Church at 815 W Orient St. on Feb. 8.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires Hillsborough County, as well as some states and other counties, to submit election procedural changes to the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure that voting rights, particularly those of minorities, are protected.

Proposed changes need to be submitted at least 60 days before an election. Hillsborough County couldn't meet that deadline in this case and sent in its request on Feb. 12, Harris said, asking for an "expedited" review because the election was imminent. DOJ received the request on Feb. 16, records show, but hasn't responded yet.

It's not unusual for elections offices to get approval after an election, DOJ spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson said. If they're denied, elections can be invalidated.

But the U.S. Attorney General has objected to only about 1 percent of proposed election changes since 1965, and the office receives between 14,000 and 22,000 applications a year.

Still, elections officials said they weren't confident enough to send the 2,535 registered voters in the two precincts letters telling them their polling site had moved. They didn't want to take "too much action" without DOJ approval, Harris said.

Harris said voters were amply notified without letters. Newspapers received press releases about the switch on Feb. 21, the same day a small newspaper advertisement ran. Officials listed the change in small type within a full-page advertisement in Sunday's Tampa Tribune.

They placed a required placard at the Korean Methodist Church directing voters to Smyrna Baptist. On Tuesday, after a St. Petersburg Times columnist and Mayor Pam Iorio called the election's office complaining the sign couldn't be seen, elections officials sent a poll worker out to direct voters to the right place.

Times staff writer Jeff Testerman and researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Justin George can be reached at 813 226-3368 or jgeorge@sptimes.com.

[Last modified March 8, 2007, 06:12:18]