October 22, 2004
MacKenna calls for Buddy's resignation
In a press conference today, Rob MacKenna, the Democratic candidate for Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections (SOE), responded to new “lost vote” revelations by calling for Jeb! appointee Buddy Johnson to resign.
It’s too bad that as the challenger in this election, Rob’s call for Buddy’s resignation will be seen as little more than a campaign stunt, because Buddy really needs to go. Judging by his performance since being appointed last year, Buddy is either a complete partisan hack, or he lacks the skills to run an election. OK - to be fair, I guess it doesn’t have to be either/or - it’s very possible that Buddy is an incompetent partisan hack.
The latest revelations from the SOE’s office have to do with the 245 “lost” votes from the primary election. Buddy has been downplaying the significance of this error, and is quick to blame human error for causing the computer to eat all those votes.
Today, published reports revealed that Buddy’s office was aware of the missing votes immediately following the election, but they did not notify Buddy, and Buddy did not notify the Secretary of State until well after the deadline for certifying the counts.
Responding to Rob MacKenna’s call for his resignation Buddy said today that this situation arose form the “most improbable of circumstances... end of story.”
MacKenna says that serious questions need to be asked, and he feels that Buddy’s excuses are “incredulous.”
Buddy blames Dan Nolan, his lame duck chief of staff, and a man whom Buddy was praising effusively in a published story just last week.
Nolan said Wednesday he would leave his $85,000-a-year position "as soon as the job is done here," which he defined as the date the general election vote is tabulated. He said he has no job offer on the table but expects to parlay his experience as a motivational speaker into something in the area of executive training and development.Johnson offered only praise for Nolan and said he would seek a replacement by looking to other qualified military officers with experience at MacDill Air Force Base.
The same article struggles to find praiseworthy examples of Nolan’s job performance. It seems that his bigggest accomplishment was calling in a repair man.
In July, just a few weeks before the primary, elections officials discovered that the tabulation software refused to read ballots. No one could figure out why."I'm getting to the very nervous stage," Nolan wrote in an e-mail to an executive at Sequoia Voting Systems, manufacturer of the county's $13-million touch screen voting machines. "We don't seem to be getting anywhere."
Nolan demanded that Sequoia dispatch a technical troubleshooter. A $75-an-hour technician arrived a short time later and fixed the problem.
Pretty impressive, eh? He can use email and everything!
None of this bodes well for the ongoing election. Early voting has commenced, and serious questions remain as to whether Buddy is ready to handle the crush of voters, including thousands of newly registered first timers, that is inevitable on November 2.
Vote for Rob MacKenna for Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections.
Posted by Norwood at October 22, 2004 07:01 PM