Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipesis not leaving quietly now. She did tender her resignation after the conclusion of another clown show of an election cycle for her state that she was at the center of (again).
Broward is one of the most Democratic counties in the state of Florida—and they took their sweet time counting the ballots, while also not giving regular updates on the outstanding ballot tally as required by state law. Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who was finally declared the winner in the U.S. Senate race over incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson, had to file multiple lawsuits to shed light on the process in this county; a judge ruled that Broward and neighboring Palm Beach County—another Democratic bastion—had processes that violated public records laws. This isn’t the first time Broward has screwed up its Election Day operation. Snipe’s office had destroyed congressional primary ballots illegally in 2016; some mail-in ballots were missing initiatives, and issues with printing ballots. It hasn’t been a track record of efficiency and competence.
Ms. Snipes was planning on leaving on January 4until Gov. Scott suspended her. Snipes rescinded her resignation and now plans to fight to the bitter end. The irony about this whole saga is that Snipes’ predecessor was removed for being incompetence (via AP):
Snipes responded by rescinding her previous resignation — and will now be “fighting this to the very end,” her attorney said ...
“We believe these actions are malicious,” said Burnadette Norris-Weeks, who said that Broward County voters should be concerned about what Scott is trying to do in the Democratic stronghold by putting in an ally who could oversee the office into the 2020 elections.
Snipes has been the top elections official in the south Florida county since 2003 when then-Gov. Jeb Bush appointed her. She came under withering criticism for her handling of this year’s elections, as well as its legally required recount in close races for governor and U.S. Senate. She had been elected three times and her current term was not scheduled to end until 2020.
In his executive order, Scott said he was suspending Snipes due to misfeasance, incompetence and neglect of duty. His order cited problems during the recount, including reports of more than 2,000 ballots being misplaced. She also came under fire in 2017 after she destroyed year-old ballots in violation of law.
Also, Snipes was set to collect around $71,000/year from her pension. This suspension would impact that, so yeah—I could see why she’s fighting this; she wants to get paid.