 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
In ballot battle, all is quiet in county
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK © St. Petersburg Times, published November 16, 2000 BROOKSVILLE -- The hoopla of Florida's presidential election recount has not come to Hernando County. Legions of reporters have not descended on the county courthouse. Mass protests have not filled the streets. No one has challenged the ballot count, which remained unchanged in favor of Al Gore after a state-mandated second tally last week. Indeed, the Supervisor of Elections Office stands virtually silent, save the regular beeping of a computer and the infrequent rings of the telephone -- mostly national media calling for updated counts of returned ballots from overseas. Party operatives check in regularly for the same information, and a sheriff's deputy sits in the corner all day, just in case. So far, nothing unusual has happened. Supervisor of Elections Ann Mau, battling the flu and counting the days until her retirement, is grateful. "I probably have said a prayer of thanks to the Lord above for allowing us to go forward and have this," Mau said, referring to the county's $410,000 optical scanning vote system, which counts ballots as they are cast. "I've probably said it morning, noon and night, and many times in between," Mau said. Two years ago, Mau was publicly vilified by the county's powerful Republican state senator, Ginny Brown-Waite, for her highly meticulous, bureaucratic ways that made Hernando among the last counties in Florida to report its election returns. "Ann Mau is the epitome of a person who, if you ask her what time it is, she'll tell you she has to build a watch," Brown-Waite said on Election Day 1998. Mau acknowledged that the slowness of the count made clear the need for something new. "It probably pushed me harder to accomplish a major goal of this job, which was replacing the system," Mau said. "I knew with the growth that was going to be coming, now was the time. I just had to get us out of the multicard system." The change has saved Hernando County from national attention and embarrassment, said Tom Hogan Sr., a Republican state committee member. "It's our voting machines. They turned out to be saving the day. They're just head and shoulders above the rest of the state," Hogan said. County Judge Peyton Hyslop, chairman of the county Canvassing Board, joined Hogan in praising Mau for promoting the new system and the County Commission for buying it. Mau may have been "persnickety" and a stickler for the rules, Hyslop said, but her methods have proven a safeguard for the county. "The main reason her office exists is to assure an accurate count of the ballots and an accurate conduct of the election," he said. "I'm real, real proud of not only our system, but the people that worked and the people of Hernando County. As far as I know, we had a really good turnout and people seemed to be generally satisfied with the process." If the phone messages from residents tucked between those from the New York Times and CNN offer any indication, Hyslop's assessment seems on target. They offered congratulations that the numbers matched and that the ballots were easy to understand. "They did a fantastic job," said Susan Torpie of Spring Hill. "With all the carrying on with the state of Florida, which I seriously resent, I was proud of our county." Poll workers gave simple, polite instructions, Torpie said, and the ballot was easy to mark. "An error was immediately apparent, you could easily correct it and your vote counted," she said, noting the vote-counting machine spit out ballots on which any race was overvoted. Charles Gallagher of Spring Hill called the St. Petersburg Times to log his praise. "Our politicians, they deserve some credit for this, and politicians normally do not get credit for spending money," Gallagher said. To ensure similar results in the future, Supervisor-elect Annie Williams said she would follow in Mau's footsteps. "I don't think I would change a thing," Williams said. "We were very meticulous with our ballot. We follow the law book. We make sure we have everything the way it should be. Because of us being so meticulous about our job, I think that really helped us a lot." Gallagher and Torpie suggested other counties also should take Hernando's lead in changing its voting system. "I don't know how much that machine cost, but it has to be cheaper than going back and counting by hand," Torpie said. "I was hearing so much flak from the rest of the state. I just wanted to say, "Hip-hip hooray for Hernando.' "
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From today's Hernando Times |
