Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Politics

Election moved without word

The Hillsborough elections supervisor didn't send letters to voters in two precincts.

By JEFF TESTERMAN
Published March 21, 2007

TAMPA - In an election where a candidate missed a runoff by just 37 votes, the last thing anybody wanted was a controversy over two precincts that were switched without letters sent to the voters.

But Hillsborough Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson maintains he did nothing wrong in switching precincts 215 and 217 in Tampa, where voters got no written notification of the change. He says the electorate got the message anyway and flocked to the new polling place in remarkable numbers.

Johnson's story, however, is contradicted by elections records and interviews conducted by the St. Petersburg Times.

The election chief's move to relocate the two precincts has sparked a Justice Department complaint by Tampa City Council member Frank Reddick, who says some voters never cast ballots because their polling place at the Korean United Methodist Church was moved to a Baptist church a half-mile away.

That's where the controversy starts:

Johnson said the Korean church withdrew its permission to be used as a polling site.

That's not what Korean Methodist officials say.

"We did not say they couldn't vote here," said the Rev. Chung Yong Kim, the senior pastor at the church at 4212 N Boulevard.

"I asked Rev. Kim myself if he talked to anyone about the relocation, and he said he didn't," said Jong Park, a University of South Florida professor who handles polling place matters for the church.

Park said he remains puzzled about why Johnson's office made the change. He said the Korean Methodists welcome the opportunity for their church to be used as a polling place again.

In Johnson's office, polling site coordinator Angela Chafens said she phoned Kim sometime in late January, after the church missed a Dec. 29 deadline to return a contract to use the church for a polling place. Neither Kim nor Park knows what happened to the contract.

Chafens isn't sure when she talked to Kim. Even though a permanent polling place change would require Justice Department approval, Chafens did not jot down a single note or write a memo about what she was told by the Korean Methodists.

"That's just not a regular procedure when I deal with people over the phone," Chafens said.

In the first week of February, Chafens found a replacement polling place, the Smyrna Baptist Church at 815 W Orient St.

Johnson declined a request to be interviewed but responded to written questions by e-mail.

"Rev. Kim did not sign or return the new contract or indicate they wanted to continue," he wrote. "In fact they seemed apprehensive to continue because a poll worker was injured on their property and they thought they might incur some liability."

Johnson initially said his office sent letters notifying all voters in precincts 215 and 217 of the change.

That wasn't true.

Yet on election day, his deputy, Richard Cervetti, repeated the assertion, remarking, "A lot of times, I hate to say this, people don't read their mail."

In fact, Johnson's office had sent letters to voters in seven other precincts concerning temporary polling locations, but had not sent letters to voters in 215 and 217.

"Because the change at 215 and 217 was permanent and not temporary, we felt we should receive pre-clearance from the Justice Dept. before sending out notifications," Johnson said via e-mail. "In the future, we will notify all registered voters impacted by a polling place change regardless of whether the change is temporary or permanent."

Johnson said no letters were sent to 215 and 217 because the change came too late; the law requires such letters be sent at least 14 days before an election.

Johnson's office signed the new church as a polling place on Feb. 8, leaving 26 days before the March 6 election. Plenty of time to meet the 14-day requirement.

So why not send notifications? Johnson said the election really began with early voting Feb. 19, leaving only 11 days to notify.

But that would mean the legal ad he placed violated the law. Florida law says a polling place change must be advertised no fewer than seven days before an election.

Johnson placed his ad in the Florida Sentinel Bulletin Feb. 23. That's too late if you're counting Feb. 19, the opening of early voting, as election day.

At 2 p.m. on election day, Johnson said that turnout at 215 and 217 was "actually twice as high as the estimated city turnout."

His prediction did not hold up: The citywide turnout in the March 6 election was 10.7 percent. At Precinct 217, 14.8 percent of the 2,365 registered voters cast ballots. At Precinct 215, just 10 of the 170 registered voters cast ballots, a turnout of 5.9 percent.

Johnson said voters in those precincts were happy with his office's service. Of 506 who voted, including absentee and early votes, he noted that just 11 voters filled out comment cards.

Mary McNally, a nun in the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, drove straight to the Korean Methodist Church on election day and found it locked up tight. A small sign directed her to the Baptist church, but the map was confusing because it displayed no major thoroughfares like Martin Luther King Boulevard.

McNally pulled out her own map and consulted with two more voters. Together they found their way to the new polling place. With the delay, McNally was late for work, one of several points she made in a comment card filled out, rating Johnson's service as "very poor."

"There was no notification," she wrote. "The least you should have done is to have someone there to give directions!"

Precinct 215 voter Anna Maynard said she found the Korean Methodist Church empty, Johnson's poorly marked map directing voters to the new location and two elderly women trying to figure out where to vote.

Maynard offered directions, then drove to the Smyrna Baptist Church to vote. On a comment card to Johnson, she said she waited outside the Baptist Church, but the two elderly women "never showed."

Johnson said he spoke to all 11 voters who filled out comment cards to respond to their concerns. It's unclear whom he talked to, since four of the 11 cards were unsigned and gave no address.

Now, council member Reddick says the handling of the precinct changes may have cost him a runoff spot on Tuesday against former County Commissioner Tom Scott. Reddick's complaint with the Justice Department seeks to overturn the March 6 result.

Scott prevailed in the three-candidate race, capturing nearly 51 percent of the vote. Reddick finished second - 37 votes shy of what he needed to force a runoff.

Reddick says his campaign staff has identified 16 voters who did not vote in 215 because they were unaware of the polling place change.

"These people didn't get a letter," Reddick said. "Some said they didn't see the newspaper ad. Some said they don't even get a newspaper."

With the Justice complaint controversy simmering and Tuesday's runoff approaching, Johnson no longer feels hamstrung by a 14-day window in sending letters to the voters of precincts 215 and 217.

In a March 16 mailing, Johnson explained that the Korean Methodist Church had declined to serve as a polling site and left no time for a letter notification about the new site. Not saying his office did anything wrong, Johnson nonetheless apologized "for the inconvenience to you and your neighbors."

Jeff Testerman can be reached at testerman@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3422.

Prior problems

Not notifying voters about precinct changes is the latest in a string of voting problems under Buddy Johnson.

August 2004: At an early voting site, one of Johnson's workers leaves a voting machine in the "test" mode, resulting in the loss of 245 votes. Johnson's staff does not report the lost votes to the state for 13 days, making the 245 votes void.

September 2004: Johnson's vote tabulation machines slow to a crawl, delaying final vote counts until almost dawn, making it one of the slowest vote counts in the state. Johnson blames the failure of a "software indexing system."

November 2004: Witnesses say Johnson tries to butt in line to vote in a crowded early voting site at the College Hill Library. Johnson backs out after being caught on videotape, denies doing anything wrong and later votes on Election Day at his Plant City precinct.

July 2006: A private group seeking to put the question of a county mayor on the 2006 ballot fails. After a private audit, the Taking Back Hillsborough Group says the petition drive failed because Johnson's office lost hundreds of petitions and inexplicably rejected many others that bore valid signatures.

March 2007: A total of 2,535 voters in precincts 215 and 217 in Tampa receive no written notification of a relocation of their polling places. An untold number of voters fail to vote.

[Last modified March 20, 2007, 23:25:19]