TAMPA, FLORIDA — A voter in Tampa was handed a pre-filled ballot when he showed up to vote in the city’s runoff election on April 25.
A report from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office provided the following documentation of the incident.
INCIDENT REPORT NARRATIVE
“Voter A” received a folder that contained two ballots that were stuck together. Voter A then proceeded to fill out both ballots and attempted to insert them into the tabulator – an act that constitutes illegal voter fraud.
The poll worker assigned to supervise the tabulator stopped Voter A from submitting the second ballot.
The poll worker then took the second ballot – which he/she understood had already been filled out – and put it back on the ballot distribution table. Apparently, none of the other poll workers flagged this action.
Voter B then was handed the pre-filled ballot and immediately notified the poll workers at the ballot distribution table.
The incident report concluded that three errors took place: 1) Voter A was given two ballots. 2) The poll worker at tabulator took the filled-out ballot and put it back in the stack of blank votes. 3) Voter B was given a pre-filled ballot.
NOT GETTING ANSWERS
The Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office would not answer The Florida Standard’s questions about the incident.
The Office did confirm that the ballots were supplied and printed by Runbeck, a Arizona-based company that services 100 counties nationwide. Runbeck has come under scrutiny due to allegations of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election and 2022 midterms.
“While we believe this to be poll worker error, we’ve sent the incident report to the State Department’s Office of Election Crimes and Security so that they can review it and determine whether further investigation is warranted,” a spokesperson for the Supervisor of Elections Office wrote in an email.
A spokesperson for the Office of Election Crimes sent the following response: “We are reviewing the actions and will determine next steps.”
