Elections chief will seek opinion

Absentee ballots to be postage-paid

There’s one less excuse for not voting in the coming elections. The absentee ballots won’t require postage.

Broward Supervisor of Elections Dr. Brenda Snipes has agreed to send absentee ballots postage-paid, after county commissioners made the request in hopes it would increase voter turnout.

Snipes also has agreed to seek a Florida Bar ethics decision about whether she should continue allowing her office’s contract attorney to contribute to or participate in political campaigns on the side.

Snipes made the decisions after meeting for three hours Wednesday with Broward Commissioner Mark Bogen, who had challenged Snipes at a recent budget workshop.

County commissioners can’t tell Snipes how to run her office; she’s a countywide elected official. But they can ask.

The county announced the detente Thursday in a “joint statement’’ from Bogen and Snipes.

Bogen, elected after a litigious 2014 season involving his District 2 seat, complained that the attorney representing the elections office in the lawsuits had contributed to one of his opponents.

Bogen asked Snipes not to allow attorney Burnadette NorrisWeeks to be involved in political campaigns, or if she is, to with-

draw from giving legal advice to the elections office in those races.

Asked at the budget workshop several weeks ago, where Norris-Weeks was not present, Snipes said she couldn’t commit to the ethics request at that time.

She has now agreed to seek a Florida Bar ethics opinion on the matter, and to follow it.

“That’s a great first step,” Bogen said Thursday

Norris-Weeks contributed to one of Bogen’s opponents in last year’s county District 2 race. But she also represented the elections office in litigation over that race. NorrisWeeks gave to both sides in at least two other 2014 County Commission races — Barbara Sharief’s and Chip LaMarca’s — giving checks from either her personal account or from Right Consulting LLC, in which she’s a managing member.

In the 2016 elections, she has given via Right Consulting to Commissioner Dale Holness, campaign contribution records show.

She also supported the Fort Lauderdale City Commission candidacy of Donna Guthrie in the race won in February by Robert McKinzie. That race also became embroiled in litigation.

Several commissioners asked Snipes to send absentee ballots postagepaid. She said she’ll do it, the joint statement says, “so long as the commission provides the necessary funding.”