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Elections Candidate Carps Long Voting Lines

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By TONY MARRERO Hernando Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 24, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - As she works to ensure early voting runs smoothly during an unprecedented high turnout, Elections Supervisor Annie Williams is fending off another jab from one of the candidates who wants her job.

Shirley Anderson, the Republican in the three-way race for the post, is criticizing Williams, a Democrat, for not anticipating the high turnout and making for a "messy situation" at one of the two early voting locations.

Early voting began Monday. Anderson said she has heard from voters who stood in a line for 45 minutes this week at the Spring Hill elections office on Forest Oaks Boulevard.

"We've known for quite some time this was going to be a high voter turnout," Anderson said. "We should already be planning for this."

The Spring Hill Library branch on Spring Hill Drive would have made a good site, she said, vowing to look into more early voting sites if elected.

On Wednesday, a total of 1,587 early votes had been cast between the Forest Oaks location and the main office in the County Government Center in Brooksville. The first day of early voting set a county record. The total tally of early votes in the first three days: 4,441.

Anderson also said she has received complaints that water bottles with County Commissioner Diane Rowden's name and face on it were left in the Spring Hill office. Rowden is a Democrat seeking re-election to the District 3 seat. Her husband Jay, who is chairman of the Hernando Democratic Party, had been passing the water out to voters in the parking lot. When the bottles found their way into the office, office workers failed to remove them, Anderson said she was told.

Anderson said voters are "left wondering if (Williams') refusal to remove Rowden promotional items from the voting areas is a sign of political favoritism."

Williams disputed the assertion that voters have waited 45 minutes.

She said she has not received any reports of waits extending beyond 25 minutes and has not logged a single complaint. She said a reasonable wait is "a natural part of early voting" in a busy area like Spring Hill.

"She's the only one complaining," Williams said of Anderson.

Elections supervisors are allowed by law to offer early voting at their own offices, public libraries, city halls and government centers. Williams said she has considered opening another office in the county, specifically in Ridge Manor, but has been stymied by budget cuts.

She said she hesitates to set up an early voting site at a location like the Spring Hill library branch because her staff would have less "control over the (early voting) process."

As for the Rowden water, Williams said staff hadn't reported a problem with an abundance of the bottles. Regardless, elections workers would have done what they are trained to do with any other campaign materials that voters leave behind.

"They throw it away," she said.

Anderson, who currently works as district coordinator for U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, has launched several volleys against Williams in recent weeks, trying to prove she's unfit to keep the job she's held since 2000. Williams has brushed off Anderson's attacks.

"She feels she needs to gripe about everything that's going on in this election to try to get votes," Williams said.

Brooksville business owner Gus Guadagnino is also in the race, running with no party affiliation.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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