Poll problems pop up across Hillsborough

TAMPA — Five minutes after NBC called the race for Barack Obama, Hillsborough County's last voter, University of South Florida student Jeremiah Warren, 21, cast his ballot for America's new president — four hours after the polls were scheduled to close.

The late-night polling at USF was a sign of why voting monitors said Hillsborough led the state in problems Tuesday.

When Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson visited the USF campus to see the line of students about 7:30 p.m., he admitted underestimating how many would show up.

"This is not a mistake," he contended. "It's an extraordinary event.''

Hillsborough saw lots of "extraordinary events" during voting Tuesday.

One voter was ordered by a poll worker to remove his Obama shirt, although state law allows voters to wear whatever they want. Poll workers told another group of voters that, no matter how early they had gotten into line, they would be admitted to the polls in alphabetical order.

At several precincts, hundreds of voters were not given the second page of the ballot.

"I was horrified because of all the poll workers who had supposedly been given a lot of training to prepare for this day,'' said voter Mark Mischan, 58, who noticed the discrepancy after more than 100 voters had preceded him.

Problems extended to counting the ballots, too. Johnson blamed the company he hired to provide the machinery. For much of the night, though, Johnson wasn't overseeing the count. Explained general counsel Kathy Harris: "He's on the ballot, and he felt it best not to hang out here tonight.''

Times staff writers Janet Zink, Kim Wilmath, Marlene Sokol, Saundra Amrhein, Bill Varian, and Richard Danielson contributed to this report.