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Fla. officials search for missing primary ballots

Associated Press   05 September 2008

Palm Beach County election officials launched a massive search Friday for about 2,500 missing ballots from last week's primary.


Meanwhile, Gov. Charlie Crist and two other members of the state's Elections Canvassing Commission approved results from the Aug. 26 primary except those termed "irregular" for a single judge's race in Palm Beach.

County workers, including off-duty firefighters and sheriff's deputies, began searching for the missing ballots at about 780 polling places.

Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning lifted a Friday deadline for resolving the ballot issue.

"I'm confident ballots are not missing," Browning said after the commission meeting in Tallahassee. He said he was sure the search would turn up the ballots and all votes would be recounted.

Browning and Crist also expressed confidence in optical scan equipment used to count paper ballots for the first time in Palm Beach and 14 other counties since the state outlawed touch-screen voting machines. Disabled voters can still use the touch screens.

"This is an administrative issue," Browning said. "This is purely the mechanics of running an election."

Officials initially had turned to touch-screen equipment in response to problems with punch-card ballots in Florida's notorious 2000 presidential election recount. But the electronic machines were also scrapped after critics complained the all-electronic ballot left no paper trail for recounts in close races.

Crist said no new machines or resources are necessary but that "maybe something else new" might be needed in Palm Beach, also a focal point of recount troubles in 2000.

One change will be a replacement for Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson. He got the job after 2000 but also is on the way out after finishing last in a three-way primary.

Candidates in close races are gearing up for possible legal challenges. That includes the race for circuit judge that the canvassing commission declined to certify.

Challenger William Abramson led Circuit Judge Richard Wennet by 17 votes after an initial count of 102,523 ballots. A recount turned up only 99,045 ballots but put Wennet ahead by 60 votes. Since then, nearly 1,000 of the missing ballots were found before Friday's search began.

The other canvassing commission members besides Crist, a Republican, are Democratic Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie.



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