South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
CANOVA
polling places “are inherently defective as to the chain of custody for the electronic votes.” Canova asserted that the modems in the machines “render them highly susceptible to outside hacking and inside software manipulation.”
■ Ballots on election night were, in at least some cases, accompanied by just one person, which allowed individuals “the improper opportunity to do anything they want with the ballots.”
■ Snipes posed for a picture with Wasserman Schultz on Oct. 27, showing “an arrogant disregard to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in the supervision of the 2018 election.”
■ A significant number of undervotes, where people voted in other races, “may mean that legitimate votes have either not been counted or have been discarded.”
Congressional races in Congressional candidate Tim Canova, on the final day of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections conference in Fort Lauderdale on May 24, where he offered criticisms of Broward Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes to the news media.
Broward were placed in the lower left corner of the ballot, below the instructions, a placement that apparently caused massive under
voting in the U.S. Senate race, contributing to incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson’s defeat. During the recount in the Senate race, there wasn’t evidence of votes not counted or discarded. The lawsuit asserts that the location of the race on the ballot “is unlikely to be the sole reason for the high undervote.”
Snipes’ overall handling of the 2018 election, including missed deadlines, a 2,040-ballot discrepancy during recounting and the confusing ballot design, generated massive criticism.
In mid-November, Snipes said she would resign in January. On Nov. 30, Gov. Rick Scott suspended and replaced Snipes, citing “misfeasance, incompetence and neglect of duty.”
Much of Canova’s complaint in the current case repeats his dispute with Snipes over the 2016 Democratic congressional primary, which Canova lost to Wasserman Schultz.
A Broward circuit court judge ruled in May that Snipes’ office broke federal and state law by destroying ballots too soon after the August 2016 primary. Snipes signed the ballot destruction order a year after the primary; the law requires
preservation of the ballots for 22 months.
The ballots were destroyed even though a separate Canova lawsuit seeking access to the ballots was pending.
Canova, who lives in Hollywood, is a professor of law and public finance at Nova Southeastern University. Wasserman Schultz, a Weston resident, is serving her seventh term in Congress. Two other candidates were on the ballot in November: Republican Joe Kaufman, who won 36 percent of the vote, and no party affiliation candidate Don Endriss, who received 0.6 percent.
The state Elections Canvassing Commission, a defendant in the Canova suit, determines who is elected in presidential, state office and congressional contests. The state Division of Elections, part of the Secretary of State’s Office, operates as the staff for the commission. Sarah Revell, spokeswoman for the agency, said by email she couldn’t comment on pending litigation.
Wasserman Schultz’s spokesman declined to comment.