Fla. election supervisor resigns
Acknowledges the loss of more than 2,000 ballots
After a chaotic recount that drew national attention, Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes resigned Sunday.
The news, reported by the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, comes after an intense two weeks following the November midterm elections, and attacks on Snipes and her office as Broward recounted ballots from the Florida senate and governor’s races.
Burnadette Norris-Weeks, an attorney for the Supervisor of Elections Office, told the Sun Sentinel that Snipes had submitted her resignation letter to spend more time with her family. Norris-Weeks did not immediately respond to an email from The Washington Post.
Evelyn Pérez-Verdia, a former communications consultant at Snipes’s office, sent out a tweet Sunday night confirming the resignation. “Dr. Snipes has sent her resignation letter to Tallahassee,” she wrote.
As Florida’s 67 counties dove into ballots, many critics pounced on Broward and Snipes. President Donald Trump jumped into the fray with a series of tweets.
“Rick Scott was up by 50,000+ votes on Election Day, now they ‘found’ many votes and he is only up 15,000 votes. ‘The Broward Effect,’ ” Trump tweeted Nov. 9.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was another regular critic. “#Broward election supervisors ongoing violation of #Florida law requiring timely reporting isn’t just annoying incompetence. It has opened the door for lawyers to come here & try to steal a seat in the U.S. Senate & Florida Cabinet,” he wrote Nov. 8 on Twitter.
Broward’s election track record is marred by mismanagement and improper procedures. Snipes’s handling of the 2018 election was also problematic, particularly in the tight senate race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Rick Scott. On election night, Broward failed to report vote totals to the state every 45 minutes, Politico reported. Broward’s recount process took much longer than most of the other Florida counties. Snipes acknowledged over the weekend her office has misplaced more than 2,000 ballots included in the original count.