A trickle of voters means no rush, no fuss at polls
Despite a few glitches, Tuesday's voting was a humdrum process - except for the guy who tried to photograph his ballot.
By JAMES THORNER
Published September 1, 2004
Light crowds, unharried poll workers and mostly trouble-free touch screen voting were the order of the day at Pasco County's 152 election precincts.
That suited Kurt Browning, the county's supervisor of elections, just fine. He viewed Tuesday's primary as a warmup to the electoral marathon he expects on Nov. 2.
Only a couple of technical glitches - and a couple of hospitalized poll workers - marred an otherwise smooth day of voting Tuesday.
Of Pasco's 1,556 iVotronic touch screen machines, the purchase of which occurred after the turbulent recounts of the 2000 presidential election, only about five broke down for the primary.
That's a failure rate of about three-tenths of 1 percent. All the votes cast up to the point of the malfunction were retrieved from the machines.
The soft turnout - the early estimate was about 20 percent - ensured that voting proceeded smoothly. But Browning, who in 1992 filed election results faster than any other supervisor among Florida's 67 counties, doesn't want any slipups come November.
"I hear they're already drafting lawsuits," Browning said of Democratic Party attorneys making plans to challenge touch screen voting in case John Kerry narrowly loses to George W. Bush.
A handful of Pasco voters expressed suspicions about the absence of a paper ballot in using the machines. A Zephyrhills voter tried to compensate by photographing his electronic ballot. Poll workers told him no.
"I'm more prone to say, "Let them take a picture.' If that gives you some level of comfort, then take a picture, by all means," Browning said.
At Precinct 37 in First Assembly of God Church on State Road 54 in Zephyrhills, Browning's polling place supervisor suffered convulsions and banged her head on a table. A backup was quickly called to staff the precinct. The emergency room also claimed a Hudson polling place supervisor.
In midafternoon, voters were kept waiting at Precinct 100, at Seven Springs Middle School, when students were let out for what some speculated was a bomb threat.
In afternoon visits to east Pasco polling places, Browning noted the low turnout and bored poll workers. But he's bracing for the hotly contested presidential race he expects to draw about 75 percent of registered voters.
"It may be slow now," Browning said, as he chatted with about 10 Zephyrhills precinct workers. "But you'll be beating it in November."
