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Secretary Harris registered to vote in two counties©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris was registered to vote in two counties for nearly seven months before aides caught the error, a review of her computer files showed. The state's top elections official properly filled out a new Leon County voter registration form on Sept. 2, 1999, after winning office and moving to the capital. But her staff did not discover until shortly before Florida's presidential primary in March 2000 that she was still registered to vote in her home county, Sarasota, the Palm Beach Post reported Thursday. It is not illegal to be registered to vote in two counties, but a voter who casts more than one ballot in a single election can be charged with a third-degree felony. The law also requires voters to cast their ballots where they reside. Harris voted only in Leon County when she had the dual registration. The registration slip-up came to light in a review of tens of thousands of files that had been stored on computers in Harris' office. The files were released by Harris last week after reporters questioned whether her office erased records that a newspaper had asked to examine. The documents include a deleted e-mail, dated March 6, 2000, in which the unidentified author noted that Harris' dual registration was caught and corrected after reporters asked to accompany Harris to her Tallahassee precinct to watch her vote in the presidential primary. The author asked Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho to fax a notice to Sarasota County Elections Supervisor Marilyn Gerkin. A Leon County elections official on Wednesday blamed human error for a lack of communication between her office and Sarasota County. "Once the Secretary of State's Office notified us that dual enrollment had actually occurred, the potential for embarrassment was obvious," said Janet Olin, Leon County assistant supervisor of elections. "They were pretty tense about it." But Harris can't be blamed for Sanchos' failure, said her spokesman, David Host. "The law clearly puts the responsibility on the supervisor of elections, Mr. Sancho," Host said. "Their attempt to pass the buck is clearly disingenuous." Gerkin, who has since left office, said she did not remember the incident. Minneapolis-based Ontrack Data International Inc. was hired by several news organizations to inspect Harris' office hard drives. Technicians with the firm said the computers showed no evidence of wholesale intentional erasures, although some files had been deleted. An initial review of files on computers used in Harris' state office revealed at least two campaign speeches endorsing Bush for president, material tied to her job as co-chairwoman of George W. Bush's Florida campaign, That revelation prompted Florida Democratic Party Chairman Bob Poe on Wednesday to call for Harris to resign. Host said Harris has no intention of stepping down.
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From the Times state desk
From the state wire
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