Hillsborough County wrapped up its hand recount Friday, with dozens of observers, campaign representatives and lawyers participating in the process.
It offered a rare and fascinating look behind the curtain at democracy in action.
Inside the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections offices, there were 20 tables of volunteers. There were six people to a table, including two representatives from each political party, two from each campaign, and two elections office workers.
“We’ve got 80 people standing here looking at every one of these ballots to see how democracy happens,” said Elections Supervisor Craig Latimer.
Each table was given a tray of ballots which the machines -- for whatever reason -- had spit out.
Some of the ballots were overvotes where more than one bubble had been filled in. Then there were undervotes where there were none. And still others with partial markings or instructions.
“Sometimes, we also have voters who will bubble in the party affiliation of the voter instead of the bubble,” said Latimer, “And if they’re consistent with that, the canvassing board will accept that as a vote for the candidate.”
In the vast majority of cases, the bipartisan committees at each table reject the ballot as invalid. But in a few cases, there’s ambiguity or objection. Those ballots then get sent on to the canvassing board, made up of the supervisor of elections, judges and attorneys for each of the campaigns.
“That’s the reason that we’re here,” said elections attorney J.C. Planas. “And that’s when you really have issues with voter intent. And the process ran very fair.”
Another person sitting at the canvassing board table in Hillsborough was a court reporter keeping track of everything that was being said to preserve the historical record and have it all written down in case of any legal challenges.
If the canvassing board can’t agree on a ballot, generally the vote won’t count. If they can, it gets marked on a board. The new total then gets forwarded to the state elections office.
“It was not as adversarial as people might’ve expected,” said Byron Townsend, one of the observers. “And it was good to see that they were trying to count the votes that needed to be counted.”
Just about every volunteer said the same thing. Participating in the recount had restored their faith in democracy. People on the opposite side of the table they said, had been courteous and civil, and the process itself - professionally and transparent.
“Whatever the outcome is, I am at peace,” said observer Delia Skye. “Whatever the outcome is.”
“We’re here because this is how we elect people. And it’s very important to our democracy,” said Latimer. “And so I’m really proud of them quite frankly.”
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