Brenda Snipes, the embattled supervisor of elections (SEO) in Broward County, Florida, submitted her resignation hours after completing the wildly controversial midterm election recount, the Sun Sentinel reported on Sunday night.
Burnadette Norris-Weeks, who serves as counsel to the SOE office and saw an early draft of the letter — which she said referenced a desire to spend more time with family — confirmed the submission of the resignation letter.
“Although I have enjoyed this work tremendously over these many election cycles, both large and small, I am ready to pass the torch,” read Snipes’ resignation letter, a copy of which Fox News obtained.
“Therefore, I request that you accept my letter of resignation effective January 4, 2019,” the letter continued.
Her term would have ended in 2020.
Snipes may hold a press conference at 2 p.m. on Monday on the matter, Fox News also noted.
Marc Caputo, who covers Florida politics for Politico, reached out to Snipes and her attorney for a copy of the letter — but received no reply, he said.
He took to Twitter to express his frustration with “the worst elections office in the state to deal with.”
“Her office hates giving public records so much the governor had to sue her for them. It’s the worst elections office in the state to deal with,” the tweet said, in part.
I emailed Snipes and her attorney for the resignation letter.
No reply
Typical
Her office hates giving public records so much the governor had to sue her for them. It's the worst elections office in the state to deal with. https://t.co/vTg22651Rg
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) November 19, 2018
Snipes, who is 75, would likely face removal from office unless she resigned.
President Donald Trump, in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” told host Chris Wallace that without his “put[ting] a spotlight” on the troubled state of Florida, newly elected Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) likely would have lost.
Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) conceded to Gov.-Elect Ron DeSantis (R) on Saturday.
And Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) conceded defeat to Sen.-Elect Rick Scott on Sunday.
The president called for Snipes’ removal in an interview with The Daily Caller last week, saying, “[Brenda Snipes is] very competent, but in a bad way … Oh, she should have been removed — I think she should have been removed in the middle of this mix-up.”
Why on earth would she have resigned?! https://t.co/ebcfHZKSjX
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) November 19, 2018
“I think it’s good that Brenda Snipes has submitted her resignation,” said DeSantis on Fox News.
“There was no way as governor that I was going to let her preside over another election down there after all the problems that they had.”
Florida’s midterm election in Broward County was fraught with serious issues straight out of the gate, and as time went on, the situation worsened.
Brenda Snipes resignation letter in which she tells @FLGovScott she’s leaving because it is “time to pass the torch.”
Resignation effective January 4. @CBSMiami pic.twitter.com/VCUAdwxDrN— Jim DeFede (@DeFede) November 19, 2018
The date is significant because it comes after Scott leaves the Governor’s post for the Senate but is also before @RonDeSantisFL is sworn in on January 8 – meaning it will fall to LG Carlos Lopez Cantera to appoint Snipes replacement during his five-day tenure as Governor.
— Jim DeFede (@DeFede) November 19, 2018
The failures began when Snipes’ office failed to provide vote totals with updates every 45 minutes on the night of the election, and continued—amid several lawsuits filed on both sides — until the numbers were at last finalized after a controversial recount over the weekend.
Allegations of fraud and serious mismanagement have plagued the office under Snipes’ watch for years.
Share your thoughts — and check out these tweets and the video just below them as well.
Bye to Broward’s FAILED and CORRUPT Supervisor Brenda Snipes.
Maybe she will advise Sheriff Israel and Superintendent Runcie to do the same.
— Hunter Pollack (@PollackHunter) November 19, 2018
Trump called for Brenda Snipes to be fired
Hours later she submitted her resignation
— Yashu Posobietz ?? (@JackPosobiec) November 19, 2018
Nothing will be fixed unless the entire staff is purged too. Staff is the constant since Snipes' predecessor was bounced for being horrible too. https://t.co/hei6DsOfdr
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) November 19, 2018
See this video:
Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and regular contributor to LifeZette.
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