FIRST IT WAS FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL candidate Andrew Gillum; now it is Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes.
Gillum conceded the election to Ron DeSantis then withdrew the concession when it became clear the vote was closer than he originally thought.
Snipes tendered her resignation then, when incumbent governor Rick Scott suspended Snipes, she withdrew her resignation.
First you say you will, then you won’t; then you say you do,then you don’t1, 2
Politicians who resigned then reneged
Dr. Snipes — she has a PhD in “Educational Leadership” from Nova Southeastern University3 — was appointed to fill an unexpired term by Republican Jeb Bush in 2003 and has won election every four years thereafter. Snipes is a Democrat in heavily Democrat Broward County.
According to the Miami Herald4
- (Gov.) Scott signed an executive order Friday ordering that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement oversee Snipes’ exit, effective immediately. He cited “misfeasance, incompetence and neglect of duty” in removing the 15-year elections veteran, who had hoped to quietly step down in early January following a tumultuous election and recount.
“Every eligible voter in Florida deserves their vote to be counted and should have confidence in Florida’s elections process,” Scott said in a statement. “After a series of inexcusable actions, it’s clear that there needs to be an immediate change in Broward County and taxpayers should no longer be burdened by paying a salary for a supervisor of elections who has already announced resignation.”
- Scott’s executive order lacks any allegations of fraud, it points to Snipes’ inability to provide basic information to the public and media after Election Day, and to a successful lawsuit demanding public records and information related to counted and uncounted votes. It notes that during the count and recount, Snipes’ staff misplaced thousands of ballots, missed a deadline to turn in updated vote tallies, and separated hundreds of anonymous provisional ballots from their signed envelopes, resulting in Broward’s submission of about two dozen invalid ballots to the state as part of its official vote count.
By the time she submitted her resignation, Snipes — whose office had already dealt with years of missteps — had lost support among Democrats, some of whom blamed her for possibly designing a ballot that led to thousands of voters in a heavily Democratic county overlooking the Senate race.
The Tampa Tribune5 reports that Burnadette Norris-Weeks, Snipes' contracted attorney, during a press conference Saturday said
- "We will be fighting this. In additionalsic to that, Dr. Snipes hereby rescinds her resignation which would have been effective on the fourth of January. She rescinds that resignation as we go forward and fight these…allegations that are frivolous. The supervisor is being held to a standard that no other supervisor has been held to in the state of Florida," she said. "We are disheartened by the governor's actions. We believe it is a malicious action that should not have happened.
The Sun-Sentinel6 reports that Snipes
- was set to receive $71,000 a year pension from her time in the elections office. The job itself paid $178,865 annually.
- The Florida Constitution mandates that the Florida Senate is required to hold a hearing to remove Snipes from office. The Senate has three months to begin its proceedings.
- In 2004, Snipes said 58,000 absentee ballots in heavily Democratic Broward County were lost – a detriment to the campaign of John Kerry's campaign.
In 2016 her office illegally destroyed 6,000 ballots after they were counted but a judge ordered them to be preserved.
- “There is no question that Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes failed to comply with Florida law on multiple counts, undermining Floridians’ confidence in our electoral process, Supervisor Snipes should be removed from her office following the recounts.”
- The 2018 midterms weren’t the office’s first brush with controversy. It broke federal law by destroying ballots that a failed candidate had a legal right to review, a judge ruled this year. About the same time, Snipes lost a court case against the Republican Party of Florida over the way she handled vote-by-mail absentee ballots. In 2016, she sent out a handful of misprinted absentee ballots as well.
As far back as 2004 — her first major election as supervisor — Snipes reported that 58,000 absentee ballots were lost.
The problems in Broward preceded Snipes. Her predecessor, Miriam Oliphant, was suspended from office by then-Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003 after botching the 2002 primary. He replaced her with Snipes, who was subsequently reelected. Along with President Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio, Bush called on either Scott or DeSantis to kick Snipes out of office.
On a personal note; since the county was last gerrymandered and voters moved to new districts and polling places, this voter has failed to receive any documents by mail from the office: no new voter registration card, no absentee ballots. This despite complaining numerous times to the office via email and in person.
Although I have a Fort Lauderdale address (due to the USPS failure to accept reality), I am able to receive mail to my city address provided it has the fill 5+4 ZIP code. Apparently the SOE’s office is unable to append the last four digits and my mail goes … frankly, I have no idea where the mail goes other than it does NOT end up in my mail box (or my neighbors’ which often is the case).
Sources
1. Undecided lyrics: http://tinyurl.com/ybq3vt2l
2. Undecided song: https://youtu.be/-sjUVhHa73E
3. http://tinyurl.com/y6uez6ls
4. http://tinyurl.com/y867l9fp
5. http://tinyurl.com/yc9ts6y6
6: http://tinyurl.com/y8dnt52b
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