LARGO -- No serious voting glitches turned up in the mail ballots before St. Petersburg's primary election Tuesday, Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark said today.

Clark wouldn't say what she thought voter turnout would be Tuesday, though many hoped early mail balloting could push it past the 25 percent of voters who showed up for the city's last contested mayoral primary in 2001.

But there's not much confidence in a big showing for the primary.

"I do not understand why some voters intentionally allow all the other people to choose who they vote for," Clark said.

She offered standard advice to voters going to the polls Tuesday: bring photo and signature ID, or be prepared to file a provisional ballot.

The St. Petersburg canvassing board waded through about 54 questionable mail ballots this afternoon, rejecting about 40 for questionable or missing signatures. That's after rejecting 120 of 196 questionable envelopes for similar reasons last week.

David DeCamp, Times staff writer