Posted on 09/12/2002 7:08:33 AM PDT by ijcr
Some of Broward County's missing ballots spent election night at Bill McKamy's house in Tamarac.
McKamy said he did the best he could as a Broward poll clerk, but his experience was emblematic of the problems that dogged Tuesday's primary election.
Polls had been closed for nearly 16 hours by the time election workers picked up the equipment that 80-year-old McKamy had taken home.
''All I know is, I did a lousy job of clerking,'' McKamy said.
McKamy was in charge of one precinct at a Tamarac assisted living facility. A second precinct shared the space. All Florida precincts had been ordered to stay open until 9 p.m., but at 7 p.m., poll workers at the other precinct ignored the governor's order and started shutting down. Seeing that, the workers under McKamy's watch got antsy.
''They wanted to get out of there, too,'' he said. He couldn't stop them, but he did not abandon his post.
For the next two hours, McKamy worked the precinct alone, and then attempted the tricky task of closing out the machines on his own.
He had trouble and said he called three times for assistance but couldn't get through.
He finally loaded the equipment into his sedan and drove to the regional collection center he was assigned to. When he got to Merrell United Methodist Church at 12:45 a.m., McKamy said no one was there to take his cartridge of votes.
So he went home.
''I decided that I had done all I could possibly do,'' he said. ``What else can you do? You can't reach anybody by telephone.''
Early this morning, McKamy said he called Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne directly to tell him what happened.
The sheriff's office contacted the elections office, which promised to pick up the equipment.
But until someone arrived at about 1 p.m., McKamy kept the equipment close, even toting it around in the back seat of his sedan during a brief errand out of the house.
Critics called the missing ballots an embarrassing reflection of how poorly the election was managed.
''That isn't even funny,'' said Broward County Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger, who served on the canvassing board that oversaw the 2000 presidential recount in Broward.
''It's disheartening, it's disappointing and it really is a blemish for Broward County,'' Gunzburger said of overall election preparations. ``I'm really tired of us being the laughingstock of Broward County.''
It's likely Tuesday's primary was the last he'll volunteer for, McKamy said.
''I've been doing this for only three or four years,'' McKamy said. ``And believe me, I think this is the last time.''
And why do these problems only happen in heavily Democrat South Florida?
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