It's Florida, Some Election Challenge Is Sure to Ensue!

This.Blanking.Election!

As reported on the Tampa Bay Online website, Hillsborough County voting records were found early this morning blowing around on Interstate 4 in Florida. That is the very same stretch of expressway that I drive to work on every day.

Great! If only I had gotten up in the middle of the night. I could have broken a national news story!

Still, question remain about the documents.

A spokeswoman for Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson said the documents are likely survey forms, but they didn't belong to the elections office.

"They're not our papers," spokeswoman Mia McCormick said. "Sometimes candidates request this information for campaign surveys. But we don't know whose they are."

How did they get there? Did they accidentally fly out of the trunk of an Obama campaign worker speeding to another rally in Orlando?

Were they dumped by a McCain black-ops team?

Could they have been tossed out on the expressway by Katherine Harris in a moment of midnight spite?

Only in Florida! Fortunately, I already voted last week.

Papers With Hillsborough Voter Info Found On I-4 in Florida

TAMPA - Hundreds of thousands of pages of what appear to be voter survey documents were found strewn along a section of Interstate 4 early this morning.

The documents were discovered along a quarter-mile stretch of the highway near I-275 and contained names, addresses, phone numbers and party affiliations of Hillsborough County voters. Several empty cardboard boxes were found nearby.

The papers also listed voters' registration numbers, precincts where they are registered to vote and a check box next to each voter's name indicating their preference of Barack Obama or John McCain in the presidential election and whether they needed a ride on Election Day.

A spokeswoman for Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson said the documents are likely survey forms, but they didn't belong to the elections office.

"They're not our papers," spokeswoman Mia McCormick said. "Sometimes candidates request this information for campaign surveys. But we don't know whose they are."

She said the information in the documents is public record.

Florida Department of Transportation workers discovered the documents at about 4 a.m. after they were seen on a video blowing around the highway.

Kris Carson, a spokeswoman for the department, said the workers collected nine full bags of papers and have been holding the documents until the department is contacted by elections officials.

"At this point, we're planning to destroy them," Carson said.

So far, no one from either major political party had claimed the documents.

"It's obviously very embarrassing," said Michael Steinberg, chairman of the Hillsborough County Democratic Party's executive committee. "I'm sure that it wasn't intentional."

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