--- title: Miss Florida Crown Taken Away Due To Voting Mishap description: Beauty dethroned due to "error in the tabulation process" canonical: https://time.com/2934861/miss-florida-mishap/ author: Giri Nathan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-27T22:33:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:34.492Z og:title: Miss Florida Crown Taken Away Due To Voting Mishap og:description: Beauty dethroned due to "error in the tabulation process" og:url: https://time.com/2934861/miss-florida-mishap/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Miss Florida Crown Taken Away Due To Voting Mishap twitter:description: Beauty dethroned due to "error in the tabulation process" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Miss Florida Just Lost Her Crown Because of a Voting Error by [Giri Nathan](https://time.com/author/giri-nathan/) ## Giri Nathan Jun 27, 2014 10:33 PM UTC by [Giri Nathan](https://time.com/author/giri-nathan/) ## Giri Nathan Jun 27, 2014 10:33 PM UTC Elizabeth Fechtel was crowned Miss Florida on June 21, but enjoyed her title for only a few days before it was [revoked](http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/miss-florida-pageant-crowns-the-wrong-winner/2186285) Friday due to the discovery of an “error in the tabulation process. First runner-up Victoria Cowen was given the crown instead after an independent audit and review of the ballots revealed that she had actually earned the highest score, the Tampa Bay _Times_ reports. The pageant coordinators did not cite any specific details about the error in their official statement. The family was told that “in the last 15 seconds of the time allotted to vote, \[one judge\] drew lines to reverse his first vote,” mother Dixie Fechtel wrote in an email to the _Times_. _\[_[_Tampa Bay Times_](http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/miss-florida-pageant-crowns-the-wrong-winner/2186285)_\]_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2934861/miss-florida-mishap/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2934861/miss-florida-mishap/"},"headline":"Miss Florida Just Lost Her Crown Because of a Voting Error","datePublished":"2014-06-27T22:33:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:34.492Z","description":"Beauty queen dethroned due to \"error in the tabulation process\"","url":"https://time.com/2934861/miss-florida-mishap/","keywords":["Living","beauty","Florida"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Giri Nathan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/giri-nathan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2934861/miss-florida-mishap/","name":"Miss Florida Just Lost Her Crown Because of a Voting Error"}}]}] ```