The Hillsborough County Commission has voted to cut the budget of the Supervisor of Elections by $200,000.
Commissioner Josh Wostal asked for the move at a March 6 meeting after what he called an “unexpected 11.5% drop in active registered voters.”
Supervisor Craig Latimer disputed the use of the term “unexpected," saying he was well aware of the decrease.
According to Wostal, the $200,000 matches the cost of election-related materials mailed to, what he calls, "inactive ghost voters."
“Your allegation that we have ghost voters on the rolls suggests that some…misinformation has infiltrated your office," replied Latimer. "We don't have ghosts on our voter rolls, we have people — people who become registered voters only after their identity is verified by the state.”
Wostal wants to use the money to repair a local intersection — N 43rd St & E Hanna Ave in Tampa.
"It's being fiscally irresponsible to allow millions of dollars to sit there and depreciate for an entire year while we have critical infrastructure needs that it could have been spent on now,” said Wostal.
Commissioners voted 4-3 along party lines to slash the funding. Wostal was joined by fellow Republican commissioners Donna Cameron Cepeda, Ken Hagan and Michael Owen.
Democrat commissioners Harry Cohen, Pat Kemp and Gwen Myers voted in opposition.
“I have never seen this board, at least in the last 20 years that I'm aware of, reach down in the middle of a budget year and alter the budget of a constitutional officer,” Cohen said during the meeting.
The initial Supervisor of Election budget for this fiscal year was set at $18 million. According to Wostal, it was $15 million in 2020 — the last presidential election — with more active voters. He said that number has decreased by around 70,000 people despite the office receiving more money.
"My budget is based on much more than a simple accounting of how many voters we send mail to,” said Latimer. “Conducting elections for our large county is always complex, complicated and it's most challenging during a presidential election cycle."
Latimer also noted that the number of active voters should increase as the presidential election gets closer. He also stated that he gives back unused money at the end of the term, but Wostal argued this is a sign of bad budgeting.
“Over-budgeting by millions of dollars and positioning yourself as a fiscal conservative... is not being a fiscal conservative,” said Wostal.
