Remembering elections of old
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN Editor
This past election night at the supervisor of elections office, Nick Routa and I were recounting the good ol’ days of elections – back decades ago when the Supervisor of Elections office was still in the courthouse.
Nick is with Inspired Technologies and he’s been on hand for elections as the computer consultant going back to when Sherida Crum was supervisor of elections. Back in those days, before the internet, there was a lot more election night drama as people came to the courthouse to find out election results. They gathered on the courthouse lawn as darkness fell, milled about, talking.
Nick recalled how the results were on a television set on a cart rolled out the front door of the courthouse connected to a cord that was run out the window. As the votes came in and were tallied, the TV would show the updated count and, as a reporter, you had to be ready for the candidates in a race who would approach, shake hands, and one offer congratulations to the other. The goal was to try to snap a picture of that moment. I remember snapping just such a photo, years ago, and I can’t remember who the candidates were, only that I was using a camera with film and the sun was setting, it was getting dark and the picture was blurry.
Nick and I recalled the hand recount at the courthouse of the county commission race between Lynn Artz and Maxie Lawhon for county commissioner – just a handful of votes separated the two candidates.
I remembered, a few years later, the contentious race between Sheriff David Harvey and challenger Charlie Creel. The votes from Sopchoppy were late coming in and Judge Jill Walker, as head of the cavassing board, announced to everyone in attendance at the supervisor’s office that absentee ballots were going in to the total and would show, online, that all precincts were reporting – when in fact they weren’t because, again, Sopchoppy.
Some TV stations, not reporting in person by relying on the website, reported Creel had won.
Later, when the Sopchoppy ballots did come in and gave Harvey just enough votes for a win, a slew of conspiracy theories began circulating about ballot-stuffing in Sopchoppy.
It wasn’t true, as I interviewed an election observer who was at the Sopchoppy precinct.
Nick laughed recalling that the reason Sopchoppy was late coming in was because the poll workers wanted to wash the crock pots they’d cooked in before driving to Crawfordville. Fun stuff.
William Snowden is editor and publisher of The Wakulla Sun.