County elections supervisors may have to wait another week before they find out how the state’s top election official viewed their handling of the 2012 election. The anticipated findings and recommendations that will be the product of a review by officials from the Division of Elections, including a tour by Secretary of State Ken Detzner of the county supervisor offices deemed the most troubled, may not be ready until after Detzner’s Feb. 1 deadline, a spokesman for Detzner stated. “It is not completed yet, but I think it’s likely to be finished by sometime next week,” Detzner’s spokesman, Chris Cate, replied in an email on Monday. Detzner’s report, called for by Gov. Rick Scott, is also expected to focus on changes that need to be made, particularly at the Central and South Florida counties, where much of the media attention was focused on long, slow lines and delayed results.
The potential delay comes as legislators continue to call county elections officials to Tallahassee for their own review of how Florida can lessen its image as a voting backwater.
“I think we’ll be in a good position with the governor backing our recommendations,” said Martin County Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis, who is among the supervisors asked to appear next week before the House Ethics and Elections Subcommittee.
Scott has backed the supervisors’ request for more flexibility in early voting locations and days, and in a reduction in the words allowed by lawmakers for constitutional amendments.
Supervisors have blamed some of the 2012 problems on legislators who in 2011 limited early voting to elections offices, city halls and public libraries, and reduced the number of early voting days, as well for the decade-old rule that legislators can have unlimited space for their own ballot proposals.
Full Article: Report on Long Lines, Other Election Problems May Miss Deadline | Sunshine State News.