Embattled Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes submitted her resignation hours after Florida completed its manual recount for the state’s Senate, gubernatorial, and agricultural commissioner races.
“It is true. She did send it,” Burnadette Norris-Weeks, counsel to Broward County’s Supervisor of Elections Office, told the Sun-Sentinel on Sunday.
Norris-Weeks said one of the reasons Snipes gave for her departure, which is likely to take effect during the first week of January 2019, was that she wanted to spend more time with her family. The timing of her exit will affect whether outgoing Gov. Rick Scott, who is now senator-elect, will appoint her replacement, or whether that task will fall on incoming Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Snipes, a Democrat, was appointed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003 after her predecessor, Miriam Oliphant, also a black Democratic woman, was suspended for systemic incompetence. Snipes, 75, was then re-elected in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016. Bush was one of Snipes’ critics who last week called on her to stand down.
Scott and the National Republican Senatorial Committee successfully sued Snipes while the election results were still uncertain for failing to release information about the number of votes cast and how many ballots had yet to be counted in her county. But the Florida Department of Elections, run by Scott-appointed Secretary of State Ken Detzner, found no evidence of criminal activity in the management of Broward County’s elections following being asked to investigate the controversy.
Under Snipes’ watch, Broward County misplaced 2,000 votes during statewide mandated recount period this cycle, mixed irregular ballots with valid ones, and missed a deadline by two minutes to disclose machine recount figures. Previously, she been accused of implementing improper procedures, including destroying votes and publishing results too early.
The series of snafus led many Democrats to discuss Snipes’ ouster. Politico reported last week she faced the possibility of an official suspension from Scott or DeSantis.
Snipes’ resignation comes after Florida finished a hand recount triggered by a machine tally showing the race between Scott and incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson still within the margin for a manual tabulation.
