TAMPA — About 166 absentee ballots were mailed out in New Tampa missing a Democratic primary race, said Travis Abercrombie, spokesman for the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Office.
Left off was the Florida House District 63 race between Mark Danish and Z.J. Hafeez.
The incorrect ballots were a result of a programming issue, Abercrombie said.
A computer glitch caused the race not to appear in precinct 363, which happens to be where Danish lives.
He was likely the first to alert the office of the error, as his wife and son, who vote by mail, opened their ballots on July 17 and saw Danish's name was nowhere to be found.
"When it came in, we opened it, and we immediately noticed, 'Whoa, this is missing,' " Danish said.
Danish said the office has responded in an appropriate manner, seemingly dropping everything and using all its resources to get things back on track.
"My faith in the elections office is still good," Danish said. "But I don't like losing any votes."
The office sent out corrected ballots with lime green fliers explaining the mistake.
Abercrombie said eight of the original, incorrect ballots have been returned, along with 24 correct ballots.
The office will follow up with those eight and anyone else who uses the incorrect ballot.
"We're certainly staying abreast of what's going on and taking corrective steps for the 166 voters," Abercrombie said.
The mistake could be a hit for Craig Latimer, the elections office chief of staff who is running for supervisor of elections.
Latimer has built his campaign around "a proven record" and restoring "confidence and integrity in the elections office."
Latimer faces former Hillsborough County commissioner and Tampa City Council member Tom Scott in the Democratic primary.
The winner goes against Republican Richard Glorioso in November.
Latimer said he is not concerned with how the ballot mishap will affect the election.
"It was a mistake, we found it, and we fixed it," Latimer said. "That's the bottom line. You've got to respond to problems."
Caitlin Johnston can be reached at cjohnston@tampabay.com or (813)225-3111.
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