Florida Gov. Rick Scott suspended Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes Friday, citing malfeasance and incompetence after a tumultuous recount. Scott also accused her of election fraud.
Scott signed an executive order removing Snipes from office. To back his decision, he listed a number of well-publicized problems, including the misplacement of thousands of ballots during the recount, a missed state deadline to file results and the inadvertent mixing of invalid ballots with valid ones.
"Every eligible voter in Florida deserves their vote to be counted and should have confidence in Florida's elections process," Scott said in a statement. "After a series of inexcusable actions, it's clear that there needs to be an immediate change in Broward County and taxpayers should no longer be burdened by paying a salary for a Supervisor of Elections who has already announced resignation."
Scott replaced Snipes with Peter Antonacci, a former lobbyist and one-time general counsel to Scott _ a scenario Broward Democrats worried about when Snipes submitted a resignation letter Nov. 18. Snipes had planned to step down in January, but she won't get that opportunity now that Scott has suspended her, effectively ending her tenure.
Snipes got her job when Gov. Jeb Bush appointed her in 2003 to replace the suspended Miriam Oliphant. She was elected and re-elected after.
Antonacci will serve the remained of Snipes' term, which runs to 2020. He would oversee voting in Florida's most Democratic county in the presidential election.
