In the wake of Jeb Bush calling on her to resign, Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes acknowledged "it is time to move on" from her position.
“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,” Bush, who first appointed her to the position in 2003, tweeted on Monday.
“He did post me here for a year and then I liked it and so I ran and I was re-elected four times,” she said when asked about the tweet. “But it is time to move on ... I think I have served the purpose that I came here for, which was to provide a credible election product for our members.”
Her statement comes as she’s facing criticism across Florida and the country over the handling of the state’s Senate and gubernatorial elections, including violating public records laws. But as many, including the Sun Sentinel have pointed out, she’s had a long history of trouble since she took over the office in 2003.
For 15 years, Snipes has served as Broward County’s elections chief, with mixed results. Long lines and vote counts that continued long after polls closed marred elections in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2016 and, of course, this year.
Among other issues:
-- A court ruled she had broken election law when she destroyed ballots from the 2016 election 12 months after it, instead of the 22 months required by federal law.
-- A medical marijuana amendment was left off some ballots in 2016.
-- Election results in the 2016 primary were posted on the elections office’s website before polls closed, another violation of election law.
-- In 2012, almost 1,000 uncounted ballots were discovered a week after the election
-- In 2004, some 58,000 mail-in ballots were not delivered to voters, leaving election officials to scramble to send new ones.
And now, after days passed in which Snipes could not or would not say how many ballots remained to be counted, and failed to give regular updates to the state every 45 minutes as required by law, she was hit with a lawsuit by Scott’s Senate campaign and the National Republican Senate Committee demanding she inform the public how many votes remained to be counted.
Snipes insists she is making sure all the votes are counted, and Democrats are asking for patience. But after years of long waits and unusual happenings around elections, Republicans say she is incompetent at best, corrupt at worst, and that she needs to go. (Sun Sentinel)
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When asked about her plans for 2020, when she is up for re-election, Snipes said she hasn't yet decided: “I haven’t finalized that. I’ll just check with my family they’ll tell me what I’m doing."
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