Brenda Snipes Resigns Broward Election Office

Brenda Snipes, the Broward County Elections Officer, resigned on Sunday.

The resignation of Snipes, reported for the first time by the Sun-Sentinel, comes just hours after her team ended two weeks of brutal voting in which she misplaced 2,000 ballots during a recount at The statewide, mixing about two dozen invalid ballots with around 200 vouchers a deadline to submit the results of the machine recount to the state.

Snipes was attacked as corrupt by President Donald Trump and other Republicans, accused without proof of having attempted to steal the US Senate elections by Governor Rick Scott and decried as "incompetent" by the US senator Marco Rubio. Under fire, Republican protesters spent days in front of Snipes' Lauderhill headquarters during a state-mandated recount, claiming it rigged the election.

The Florida State Department delivered Snipes' letter of resignation Monday morning. He was sent to Governor Rick Scott and his effective date is Jan. 4.

"It's my passion and my honor to serve as the Election Supervisor for the constituents of Broward County," begins Snipes' letter. "When I was appointed to this position on November 20, 2003, my initial commitment was to fulfill the remaining mandate and pass the torch to the person who would be elected in the next election cycle. Was almost fifteen years ago.

"Although I have greatly appreciated this work during these many election cycles, big and small, I am ready to pass the torch, so I ask you to accept my letter of resignation as of January 4, 2019. "

Attempts to reach Snipes were unsuccessful.

Evelyn Perez-Verdia, a former communications consultant for Snipes' office, tweeted early Sunday night that Snipes had sent her resignation to the state.

"I spoke to one of his key people, [who] confirmed that the resignation letter had been sent today, "Pérez-Verdia said on Twitter.

Snipes' resignation ends a 15-year period that began in 2003, when then-governor Jeb Bush appointed him to replace the besieged election supervisor, Miriam Oliphant, who He had suspended because of the mismanagement of his office. Snipes was elected in 2004 and re-elected three times after, the last in 2016 – an election in which she was castigated for leaving a voting question on marijuana for medical purposes and for illegally publishing the total votes before the closing of the polls.

Both problems were attributed to the sellers.

But Snipes, 75, had a long history of problems in his department. Republican lawyers accused her of improper proceedings during the presidential election – attacks she blamed on politics in the state's most democratic county – and she was then reprimanded by a judge for prematurely destroying the ballots of a congressional race. Last week, Bush, the man who named him, was among those calling for his dismissal.

More recently, at the 2018 primaries, Democratic consultants whispered about his department after the late publication of the results – a forerunner for general elections, during which Snipes' office continued for days to process ballots. anticipation and postal ballots, which ultimately helped advance the elections for the governor, the US senate and the agriculture commissioner in the mandatory machine accounts. She failed to explain when her office continued to process tens of thousands of advance ballots and correspondence within two days of the close of the polls for the mid-term elections and then ordered by a judge to restore public records after Scott sued him for having should have been available to the public.

"It's a big deal, but there are things to be changed on all sides regarding the constitutive processes of the elections," Snipes told reporters after Broward's solicitation council submitted his last election. from 2018 to the state. When asked if she feared that the elected governor, Ron DeSantis, would suspend her, she replied "her lawyer says I should not answer that question".

The resignation of Snipes means that his appointment will be the responsibility of the governor of Florida. Scott will be sworn in on January 3 as a US Senator, which means her planned resignation would leave the office open during the interim reign of current Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera. DeSantis will not be sworn until January 8th.

It is not known yet whether Lopez-Cantera would appoint Snipes' replacement or leave the siege open until DeSantis becomes governor. The term Snipes runs until 2020.

Alex Harris contributed to this story.