The Political Whore

Voter Mark Michan told CL this morning that he had to alert officials at his Ybor polling place that the third page of his ballot was missing. Included on page three were state amendments 6 and 8, and the referendum on veto power for the countywide mayor position. He voted at 7:40 a.m. at the New Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 2511 E. Columbus Dr., and says that after he raised the issue, officials located a shrink-wrapped bundle of the third pages and distributed them.  Michan is worried that this means anyone who voted between 7 and 7:40 a.m. at the church will have their votes invalidated. He called Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson’s office but no one has called him back. CL called the “Election Day Questions” number on the Supervisor’s website several times as well as the Election Day Media Requests number, but could not get through.

UPDATE: Tampa City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena, an Obama supporter, said another precinct, in West Tampa at the West Tampa Convention Center on W. Columbus Avenue, had a similar problem this morning, with voters getting only one of two ballot pages for the first two hours of voting this morning.

We’ve reached the Hillsborough supervisor’s office and are told they will look into the problem and tell us what happened.

UPDATE 3:03 p.m.: No word from elections office but Times is reporting that Buddy Johnson acknowledges these problems occurred at four different precincts:

Earlier today, county elections supervisor Buddy Johnson said an unknown number of voters were only given half of their ballots at at least four precincts this morning.

Johnson said his office has gotten calls from voters complaining that poll workers gave them only one of two ballot pages. He wasn’t sure which specific precincts had problems.

Here’s the full Times story.

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