Why Paper Trails Matter - And Why Does The Person Ahead Always Say They Would Concede If Behind?

440 uncounted ballots found -

Busansky said she thinks the uncounted
ballots were the result of a combination of human and mechanical error at
the Temple Terrace precincts on election
night, when two of the three optical scan voting machines
in the church apparently broke down.

Elections workers "were unable to get any information out of the machines to
find out how many votes had been tabulated at the precincts," said Busansky's
chief of staff, Craig Latimer.

The optical scan voting system uses paper ballots, so even if the machines
fail there is a paper trail. That's one of the benefits of the state-mandated
switch to paper-trail voting in 2007 after a disputed congressional race.

Without the paper ballots as a backup,
election officials said, the 440 votes would have been lost forever.

"If a judge orders us to recount the votes, we still have the paper ballots,"
Latimer said.

David Penoyer, who lost by 84 votes to Mary Jane Neale in the Temple Terrace election, said Friday he is
leaning toward legal action to get all the votes counted.

Neale said she hopes the controversy does not end up in a courtroom.

"If I were in David's position, I'd handle it like Al Gore did," she said.
"I'd move on."