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LAUDERHILL, Fla. – The Republican candidate for the position of Florida agriculture commissioner acknowledged his loss Monday – sort of.
Matt Caldwell, a Republican, lost the election by less than 7,000 votes. Democrats elected to head the election offices in two counties in South Florida hurt him so much that he confessed that he was still not convinced of the results.
"Unfortunately, as a result of the catastrophic failures of Broward and Palm Beach, it became clear that we will never be able to understand what happened in the hours and days that followed the closing of the polls." , did he declare.
This announcement took place the next morning, after Brenda C. Snipes, Broward County's election supervisor, informed Governor Rick Scott that she was resigning from her position on January 4, as a result of several election incidents that affected his mandate. Broward County after the November 6 elections.
Mr. Snipes' resignation and Mr. Caldwell's reluctant concession on Monday highlighted the pitfalls of Florida's fragmented electoral system, painfully revealed over the past week, a system of 67 counties with different equipment. and managed by civil servants with a wide range of skills. almost everyone had to introduce themselves.
Dr. Snipes, in trouble and tired, granted Monday her first interview since her resignation, expressing surprise at the harsh accusations against her and her reflection on a career that, according to her, "had exploded in front of a show". The doctor, exhausted, seemed bored. Snipes, 75, said she's always known that this election would be her last.
"I'm a little surprised by myself: I feel calm," said Dr. Snipes, an elected Democrat who was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush in 2003. "I do not feel stunned. I am amazed by all the people who came here with all the comments that did not know me in a sack of earth, it is a representation of the kind of climate we live in. "
The problems in Broward County began immediately after polling day, when his office provided blurry details about the number of votes cast in various categories. He then produced unexplained new votes in the days following the election – a situation that prompted Republicans to file a lawsuit asking them to access the county's voting records, which They easily won.
Just after polling day, a small pile of rejected ballots was inadvertently mixed with valid ballots – and all were counted.
On Thursday, Dr. Snipes' office failed two minutes into the state's deadline for submitting the results of an automatic recount and accused the unknown of not knowing the state's website.
That was not all: the automatic recount of the machine was it is missing more than 2,000 votes. The solicitation was forced to choose which results to use, while Snipes said the ballots not included in the recount were likely misclassified with another stack of ballots.
If she had to do it again, said Dr. Snipes, she would find a larger facility in which to recount, as the proximity of the places they were operating was likely causing the "incident" .
People do not talk about what went well, she said: 22 advance polls running 12 hours a day for two weeks. More than 300,000 people hosted for early voting and another 200,000 by mail. She added that her office had also conducted a supervised vote in retirement homes.
"I'm not going to say that I've made any major mistakes, I'm not going to say that," she said. "Many of the things we planned went exactly as planned."
Nevertheless, it is in the spotlight of critics since almost the time of the closing of the poll.
In the early days following the elections, an unruly crowd gathered in the parking lot of the election office to protest, parading with placards representing Dr. Snipes and chanting, "Let's lock her up." The message was clear: many Republicans were convinced Mr Snipes was subverting the count of votes to tip the election of Democrats in a county where they hold a considerable advantage in voter registration.
Scott, who is now the Republican senator for the state, has asked the state's law enforcement department to investigate potential wrongdoing in Snipes' office.
"They blame me for everything," she said. "It's really discouraging that people feel compelled to go out and make such comments."
The man who recommended Dr. Snipes to Mr. Bush for the first time expressed his sympathy.
"There were big bumps and as a leader, she had to take responsibility for what had happened. That's what she did, but I'm sure she also thought, "It's not worth it," said Dorsey Miller, a former African-American Republican from Florida. "It's a strong woman, but I'm sure she needed peace."
Dr. Snipes was easily re-elected in the years following his appointment. In the United States, about 60% of local election officials are expected to run for office, but more and more states are turning to the use of bipartite boards to hold elections to avoid any appearance of bias, experts said.
Almost all of Florida's election supervisors are elected, a situation that creates the possibility that elections in large metropolitan areas may be overseen by politicians with no expertise in the conduct of elections.
"The way not to do it is the same as Florida," said Daniel P. Tokaji, electoral law expert at the Ohio State University School of Law. "There is an inherent conflict of interest." In his case, Dr. Snipes said, "whether or not it is truly biased, people subject to reelection are encouraged to do what is right by their party."
Florida's only county not to elect its superior is also the state's largest, Miami-Dade, who was widely hailed on polling day and counting for conducting a smooth operation, then that he had about 100,000 more ballots to process than Broward County. .
Her supervisor, Christina White, is a career civil servant with no political affiliation, appointed by the county mayor.
"She is released from the politics, innuendo and traps that sometimes accompany this affair," said Esteban Bovo, chairman of the county, republican commission to the non-partisan mission, during a press conference the week last.
Despite this, on November 6, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment that will require all election supervisors, including Miami-Dade, to be elected from 2024 onwards.
The problem of elected representatives is not only an appearance of bias, it is also that "bad actors" have ample opportunity to make partisan shenanigans, said Frances R. Hill, expert in elections at the Faculty of Law of the University of Miami.
The possible interference includes the cleansing of voter lists and the closing of polling stations to limit participation in certain communities, she said.
Research at the University of Wisconsin has shown that appointed Republican election officials are slightly less likely to approve temporary polls than appointed Democratic officials, said Charles Stewart III, Massachusetts Institute elections expert. Technology.
Cathy Cox, a former Georgia secretary of state, said her state now requires election officials to pass a competency test and those who do not master the latest technologies sometimes fail. She added that bipartite boards or commissions had been created in recent years in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Delaware.
In Virginia, a legislative audit blamed his election agency for being subject to political influence with a large number of appointees, she said.
In Florida, this breathtaking mid-term election revealed the dangers of a county-to-county system that identified such important elements as ballot design and the county-by-county vote counting system. This meant that some counties could easily recount, while others simply could not.
In Broward County, Democrats said the design of the ballots could cost votes to outgoing Senate Democrat Bill Nelson, as the race was inscribed in a corner of the ballot, as per instructions.
Ms. Snipes, for her part, said she supports Florida's method of choosing her local election supervisors for the polls: it gives voters a voice, she said.
She said she hoped that the constituents of Broward County who elected her remembered her as the "same person" that they had chosen in four consecutive elections.
"Managing an election," she said, "is a big job."
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