When election ends, we must begin seeking answers anew
Shortly after the 2000 election and the butterfly ballot design debacle in Palm Beach County which cost Al Gore the presidency, I called on the new Broward Supervisor of Elections, Miriam Oliphant, to create a Citizen’s Ballot Review Committee to assist the SOE’s office in ensuring the design of future Broward ballots would not be confusing to voters. Oliphant had no interest in establishing the committee of outside eyes to review her work. Oliphant’s broader deficiencies in running the office ultimately resulted in Gov. Jeb Bush removing her from office in 2003 and appointing in her place Brenda Snipes. (Full disclosure: I ran for SOE in 2000 in a three-way primary only to lose to Oliphant in the last runoff election in Florida history that October. Oliphant took office in January 2001)
Valid criticisms of Brenda Snipes’ management as the Supervisor of Elections have been legion since she was appointed. The courts have also taken a dim view. In 2016 I ran against Snipes in the Democratic primary with the support of many local officials and a lengthy endorsement by the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, but I could not overcome the millions of dollars of public funds she spent making sure every voter saw her name and picture on every piece of mail, including on Vote By Mail Ballots which contained our race, every flier, all the signage voters saw as they approached and entered the polls to vote and she even put her name and signature in 25-foot lights high on the facade of a shopping center in Lauderhill. Since then she has only reinforced the reasons I ran, including that Broward turnout has been chronically below the state average since 2003 and vote counting and reporting continue to plague the office.
Right now, all the legally voted ballots must be counted in the recount in addition to the military and overseas ballots which legally must arrive by Nov. 16th. The SOE and the Canvassing Board must see to it and prevent the SOE and her staff from taking any liberties interpreting the laws and rules that control how all ballots are handled and counted.
Now is not the time to halt the process or allow our degraded partisan atmosphere to create more massive confusion with calls for the governor to remove her. There are plenty of eyes watching every aspect of Snipes’ operation: the courts, the media, candidate and party lawyers for all sides, Division of Election personnel, presumably the FDLE, and both ill- and well-intentioned voters and outside activists hurling insults. After the winners are certified (and the lawsuits conclude) there will be ample opportunity to solve the issue of how Broward votes with bipartisan solutions and input.
I expect to have a multitude of suggestions, as I have in the past, that I will offer as constructive.
I believe that the biggest casualties, beyond these election results, will be a difficult to rebuild confidence in Broward’s voting system and the people who administer it. Just when the County Commission was reinforcing its financial commitment to funding the office and paying the return postage on Vote-ByMail Ballots to encourage voter participation, voters are likely to question the reliability of the mail-in option and struggle to vote only at Early Voting sites or on Election Day to better ensure that their vote counts.
Registration will seem a distant civil responsibility. Election involvement, especially by younger voters, will dry up. Even finding election season paid staffing for polling places will tougher than staffing up for the holidays. Turnout will suffer.
We must begin anew! Remember, those who will not see truth, those who will not hear truth, those who will not speak truth will be easily driven to their own destruction by the unscrupulous people they allow into power over them.