Results Remain Up In Air For Hillsborough Schools Tax Referendum

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — It will be at least two more days before voters know the outcome of a controversial referendum on the Hillsborough County primary election ballot asking voters to approve a 1-mil property tax increase to give public school teachers a raise.

The final vote on primary night, Aug. 23, was 110,342 (49.86 percent) votes in favor of the referendum and 110,961 (50.14 percent) votes against the referendum.

The Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Canvassing Board gathered at 5 p.m. Thursday to begin counting provisional ballots and ballots missing information, said supervisor of elections communications manager Gerri Kramer.

"This is why we always say the results are unofficial," said Kramer. "If there's a difference of half of 1 percent in the results, Florida law requires an automatic recount, and I expect that will be the case for the referendum."

She said the results of the primary posted Tuesday night include all of the vote-by-mail ballots, early-voting ballots and election day ballots from all 448 precincts in the county.

See related story: More Pay For Hillsborough Teachers To Be Decided At Ballot Box

However, those results do not include provisional ballots or ballots with signature issues that can be "cured."

Provisional ballots are ballots cast on election day in which the voter arrived at the polls without proper identification. There are 35 states, including Florida, that require voters to present an official form of identification at the voting precinct.

If the voter doesn't have the proper ID, he or she can still vote but the ballot is marked as "provisional," meaning it has to be reviewed by the canvassing board to determine if it's valid and can be counted.

If there is an issue with a vote-by-mail or absentee ballot, such as a signature that doesn't match or a missing signature, 18 states allow voters the chance to fix, or "cure," their ballots so they can still be counted, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Florida is among those states. Under Florida statutes, supervisors of elections must contact the voter if the ballot has a missing signature or a signature that doesn't match, and the voter has until 5 p.m. the day after the election to "cure" his or her ballot.

Kramer said provisional and cured ballots that the canvassing board determines to be valid are added to the vote totals and then certified by the canvassing board.

At Thursday nights's canvassing board meeting, the board will also order a machine recount of any race or issue with a .5 percent difference in the total number of votes, which is likely for the school district referendum.

Kramer said the recount of the school district referendum will begin at 10 a.m. Friday. After the machine recount, a manual recount will be ordered if the second set of unofficial results indicates that a candidate or issue was defeated by .25 percent or less.

Kramer said the official results of all the races in the primary, including the too-close-to-call school district referendum, will be certified no later than Aug. 30, although she anticipates it will be sooner, most likely by Aug. 28.