TAMPA, FL -- An unofficial recount of ballots found nearly three months after last November's election won't change the outcome in the only race effected by the missed votes.
The tabulation was done by David Penoyer, who lost the Temple Terrace city council race by 84 votes, and his attorney inside the offices of Hillsborough Election Supervisor Phyliss Busansky.
Busansky had agreed to turn over copies of uncounted ballots in two Hillsborough prescincts connected to the city council race.
Also present for the review was Mary Jane Neale, the certified winner of the Temple Terrace council seat.
The ballots were found in a ballot box on January 15 and were from the November general election. The discovery is another controversy leftover from the administration of former elections supervisor Buddy Johnson, whom Busansky defeated last fall.
Shortly before leaving office, Johnson informed the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners that he needed an additional $2.1 million to balance his budget, due to unforeseen expenses and overtime from the fall election.
The request, made at a commissioner's board meeting by Johnson's chief of staff, incensed the commissioners, who ordered an audit of election office accounts.
But county auditors said the records were impossible to fully audit. The commission eventually approved about$330,000 to cover transition expenses for Busansky, who promised to conduct a full audit of the office.
Then the missing ballots were found.
Under state law, the elections office cannot conduct a recount because the results of the November races had already been certified. Even if a significant discrepancy had been found, any change--or an official recount---could only come from a court order.
Penoyer, with help from the Florida Democratic Lawyers Council, filed an open records request seeking to get copies of ballots from precinct 651, which, officials said, was the only one that could have changed the outcome of the Temple Terrace council election.
With Penoyer, Neale and reporters watching, election officials opened the found ballot box and separated the precinct 651 ballots, then photocopied them and transferred the images to a compact disc.
The disk was then given to Penoyer and Sharon Samek, his attorney. With reporters watching, Penoyer called out the vote totals on each ballot, while Samek kept track of the totals.
In the end, Neale proved out to be the winner, even with the addition of the uncounted ballots.
