Politics & Government

Ballot Snafu Impacts New Tampa Voters

Improperly printed ballots were mailed to an estimated 166 voters.

New Tampa Democrats eager to cast their vote in the Florida House District 53 race might find themselves a little confused if they contacted the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Election’s Office in time to receive an absentee ballot.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the elections office left the race between Mark Danish and Z.J. Hafeez off about 166 absentee ballots that were mailed to those in precinct 363. The snafu is being blamed on a programming mistake.

The error has been caught and the supervisor’s office has mailed out corrected ballots, the Times reported, but some of the bad ballots have already come back in. To remedy the situation, the supervisor’s office is contacting voters who received the erroneous ballots.

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"We're certainly staying abreast of what's going on and taking corrective steps for the 166 voters," the Times quoted Travis Abercrombie, the election’s office’s spokesman, as saying.

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