The lightning rod for the voting controversy in Florida this year has been Broward County and its supervisor of elections, Brenda Snipes.
President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that Snipes "has had a horrible history and all of a sudden they are finding votes out of nowhere," The New York Times reported. Florida Gov. Rick Scott, holding a razor-thin lead in the race for the U.S. Senate over incumbent Bill Nelson, announced Thursday that his campaign had filed a lawsuit against Snipes and Susan Bucher, the supervisor of elections in neighboring Palm Beach County, WFOR reported.
The suits accuse both offices of not complying with the state's public records laws, and Scott publicly blasted both officials for "rank incompetence," the Sun-Sentinel reported.
A Broward County judge ruled in favor of Scott on Friday and said Snipes must allow "immediate" viewing and copying of records that had been requested, WFOR reported.
However, a spokeswoman for the Department of Law Enforcement told the New York Times that no fraud allegations had been made and that no criminal investigations would proceed against Snipes or Bucher.
Here are some things to know about Snipes:
Brenda Calhoun Snipes, 75, is a native of Talladega, Alabama, and has lived in Broward County since 1964, according to the official Broward County Supervisor of Elections website.
She graduated from Westside High School in Talladega and then attended Talladega College, where she majored in modern foreign languages. After moving to Florida, she earned a master's degree in curriculum and instruction for adults from Florida Atlantic University and was awarded a doctorate in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University, according to the website.
She began teaching in Broward County after being invited by Blanche G. Ely, a social activist and principal of the Pompano Beach high school that bears her name.
She served as a co-principal at C. Robert Markham Elementary School in Pompano Beach before being appointed principal at the school.
She retired from the school system in June 2003. Five months later, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Snipes to replace Miriam Oliphant, who was removed from the post after accusations of mishandling the 2002 gubernatorial primary, CNN reported in 2003. She was elected in her own right in 2004 and was re-elected in 2008, 2012 and 2016,
Snipes and her husband, Walter Snipes Jr., were married in Talladega County, Alabama, in April 1964, according to Alabama marriage records. They have two grown daughters: Derrice Snipes who is a grants management director at Southwest Community College in Memphis; and Melanie Snipes, an attorney in Cartersville, Georgia. Snipes and her husband have two grandchildren.
Some of the previous glitches that have occurred during Snipes’ tenure as supervisor of elections:
A court ruled Snipes 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, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Election results in the 2016 primary were posted on the election office’s website before the polls closed, the newspaper reported.
In 2012, nearly 1,000 uncounted ballots were discovered a week after the election, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
In 2004, approximately 58,000 mail-in ballots were not delivered to voters, the newspaper reported.
Cox Media Group
