After doing such a lousy job for all these years, she will get rewarded with a big fat pension for the rest of her life. You can't touch her or the pension. We have let the inmates run the Insane Asylum again.
She needs to be investigated and if appropriate, indicted, tried and jailed. The franchise is sacred. Democrats must never be allowed to fix elections. This is the new reality. When democrats lose, they now refuse to accept the results of free, fair elections. Look at the democrat driven, fake , Russian collusion witch hunt. The democrats have gone mad.
2
@Steve...no one needs to fix elections, period; and that includes Republicans
Hmmmmm, 5 years too late.
Let her resign then investigate and prosecute her for her crimes of fraud!
She must not be left off the hook!
2
A lot of people gave a lot of money to Florida Democrats and they have nothing to show for it. She did what she could to help out the donors but ultimatly there was too much media attention so they could not use the usual big city playbook. I am sure lots of people will be wanting their money back.
1
I'm from Broward county and my voting location is inside a shopping mall. I was disgusted by the incompetence and laziness of the voting workers. It was as if they were at a picnic and busy eating, laughing and deciding who was going to make a run to the food court. The woman who gave me my ballot was busy talking and three of the ballot pages were upside down and the tear-off identifying strip at the bottom of each page was not torn off. I asked one of the workers (it was hard to get her attention) if this would cause a problem and she said no. Wrong answer because the scanner wouldn't take the three pages and I had to get back in line and get the 3 pages reprinted, complete them and put them in the scanner. So part of my ballot was entered and then I had to enter the rest of the ballot after I completed it. Who knows if my vote was even counted. The people at my location were not trained and/or poorly supervised. I say good riddance to Snipes.
2
@Roberto maybe you can help by volunteering next election? Its easy to complain, harder to commit to being part of the change.
What if Brenda Snipes had been the Supervisor of Elections of Duval County instead (a deeply Republican area) and a high proportion of Senate votes (likely favorable to Scott) were missing?
I think that Scott would have demanded a re-vote.
1
ONLY a democrat would want to win by cheating
I understand the outrage of folks on this design and as to why we have no national standards - as expressed below.
On the contrary, I think this is wonderful as it shows a history of our nation where elections were always supervised and conducted at local levels - so to speak - to local tastes.
Before the direct elections that we are now most familiar with - except for POTUS's - our history shows wide lattitude in conducting these elections. And this goes back to election of our third POTUS - one Mr Th. Jefferson.
And to me, that is the beauty of our system.
Sure, in modern times, we need to have some standards - but let's not make this an SAT, GRE or some standardized test.
Cone to think if it - even these highly scientifically design tests - often have failed a "common sense" test.
So, I say - here is to our history and to our great democracy.
The cynic in me thinks that Scott never fired her because he knew that eventually there would be a close election in Broward where Rep were at risk at losing----and what better way to prevent that than to have an incompetent person in charge of elections...so that she can be blamed, and not him.
4
Here in Oz, turning up at the voting booth on election day, or submitting our vote by post, is compulsory for all Australian citizens resident in the country on election day. You can spoil your ballot, rip it up, pocket it etc — but you have to get your name ticked off the electoral roll that you've received the ballot papers.
You fill in your ballot papers by numbering each square, or just one for optional preferential voting, using a soft lead pencil. If you make a mistake you can rub out the number using an erasor or ask for a fresh ballot paper.
Ballot papers are counted by hand. No machines are used.
For me, the worst thing in a federal election was filling in every square sequentially of the absurdly long Senate ballot papers when voting below the line. The level of illumination at counter height in the school assembly halls used as voting stations fell below national prescribed standards. It took me two hours in the last federal election, before they changed the rules, and three new Senate ballot papers, to fill in every square sequentially without a mistake.
I was so irritated by this, I complained formally in writing to the AEC and to my federal Senator. Partly as a result of my complaint to my Senator, plus numerous other complaints, plus a desire by the government to scupper the micro parties, the federal government changed the voting rules for the Senate to allow much easier preferential voting above the line for parties.
Now, I just submit a postal vote.
2
Talk about Ballot design, in Georgia, many of us were shocked that we suddenly had a ballot with Republicans listed first in every race instead of ABC order. Never saw that in 35 years of voting.
6
Too bad she did not resign before the election. It may never be known if Nelson really lost the election or if it was bungled away.
3
There ought to be transparent national models for ballot design.
As a nation, we should be making it easier for people to vote and to vote accurately. These matters are too important to democracy to leave to the tender mercies and whims of self-interested state and local officials.
8
I blame the woefully inadequate education system in this country.
How about teaching high school kids some pretty basic life skills like how to write a check and balance a checkbook and how to read a ballot and to vote.
the design matters much less if people can understand it and know what they're supposed to be looking for.
2
This was the most incompetent recount I have ever seen and Florida in 2000 was pretty bad. Pray that they fix this mess for 2020 when the stakes are much higher.
5
@Casey Penk
They were high in 2000 or did you forget? If Gore won, Trump would just be a failed real estate developer with Twitter.
3
A person who works at the county level in an elections department may or may not be incompetent, but I have a really hard time believing that any of them would try to throw an election on purpose. Or that if they did, that they did it as a team and nobody blew the whistle. Call me naive, but that idea is totally un-American.
4
What does the times or it's reporters mean by a "machine recount"? Are florida elections still using the old mechanical, hand operated vote machines, similar to the ones used in NYC up until after the 2000 debacle (thanks to both Gore and Bush as well as the Florida GOP)?
Or, do they mean by "machine" recount, that ballots were somehow recounted by a computer which Times writers and Florida pols still refer to as Machines and not electronic devices?
If NY would return to using such "machines" operated by the hand cranks which we used up till the election of 2000, I would be prefectly happy. As it stands, I hate and distrust the new copy-machine like drop boxes. God himself , with the Devoil, probably have no idea what happenes to ballots ponce they enter the sliding jaws of those awful plastic safes. All we need is a blown fuse and enormous parts of an election can disappear.
I am still in the dark considering what went on in Fla. -machine or computerised. The Timesand it's writers has become increasingly obtuse and sloppy in the last 10, or so, years.
@meloop
I live in NW Fla. My ballot was counted by an automatic scanning machine.
Florida..... too bad a state that counts so much can't count.
8
@EE I made a bad spelling mistake in my reply a few minutes ago. A penalty on a county that doesn't do the job accurately? Make the county have a total revote with paper ballots. Let the state absorb the cost.
My terrible spelling mistake? country, not COUNTY.
3
Total embarrassment to our party. Democrats prove again they have to win or call the other side dirty names when they don't. What is wrong with us
7
Instead of firing people who are trying to run a system centered around obsolete machines and inadequate staffing, how about spending some money, Broward County, and updating your machines, getting more of them, opening more polling places to cut down on wait times and count times, and provide adequate staffing to supervise the polling places and the counting aftermath, including experienced canvassers from the major parties. If the Republicans in control of the state don't want to provide additional funding, then put the blame squarely where it lies - with them - and keep screaming about it until something is done about it. Meanwhile, file federal suits against the Secretary of State and whoever else is in charge of running and funding the voting apparatus for civil rights violations deliberately depriving people of their right to vote and then having their vote actually counted! And I would file ethics complaints against the judges who put unreasonable and arbitrarily artificial deadlines on calling for completion of counts despite broken down equipment and the inability to easily find the proper location on the state's website to file recount numbers!
9
@Jan N its the county's job to purchase the machines. The republican controlled counties don't have these problems. The judges are only applying the law as written.
Democrats have had a National only strategy for so long that even their own elected official is giving aide and comfort to the other side. Could anyone imagine such UN-self serving incompetence from a republican official?
3
I think the new state motto for Florida should be "Come visit Florida, we are unembarrassable"
I would love to see a sci fi movie set into the distant future where a headline shows ballot failure in FL.
3
I heard that Ms. Snipes resigned based on the results of a vote among her subordinates as to whether she should remain on the job. She actually won that vote but her office miscounted and then misplaced the ballots so she was forced to resign. What a shame. Not.
15
Problems, yes. Mistakes, yes. One person to blame, very unlikely.
To all those whose comments focus on Dr. Snipes age. I hope you encounter more compassion when you are over 60.
8
Dr Snipes should take with her the Florida voting machines on her way out the door.
Makes no sense to get rid of the rider and keep the same old broken horse.
Get new machines now and someone who can operate them.
Otherwise we can start organizing the recounts for 2020 already.
13
We democrats lost a senate seat because of the terrible design as there were 30,000 undervotes. Everybody who approved and designed that ballot should either resign or be fired. Unbelievable incompetence.
We lost in 2000 to presidency on a butterfly ballot again in another democratic county Palm Beach County. That terrible mistake cost us a democratic presidency and two stupid wars and many lives, and 3 trillion dollars. It is just said. I live in Palm Beach county and we democrats hurt ourselves all the time and it discourages you not to vote.
22
@mike Wrong on the facts. There were not 30,000. Besides many people in the 2016 Presidential race purposely did not vote for Trump or Clinton. These were not undervotes. they were by choice
2
@Thomas Lashby I am talking about this recent election and NYT piece that we both read said there were 30,000 undervotes.
"some 30,000 Broward voters did not make a choice in the Senate race — a significant undervote "
1
@Thomas Lashby - Plenty of Jewish Florida voters in Palm Beach County voted for Pat Buchanan by MISTAKE. The butterfly ballot did cause voting irregularities. I remember it. As soon as I voted in the early morning, I knew that these ballots would be a problem.
3
This is pretty sad, when the county is not given the budget or tools to succeed. This resignation is not going to fix Broward County.
10
@Debra the county isn't given a budget. they make their own.
1
I wonder how many voting districts across the country are equally as incompetent, but don't have elections close enough to warrant investigation.
11
It would be quite interesting to “ really “ count all votes in Florida ,going through all the nooks and cracks of the system , mail in ballots and all the others ....
I don’t buy this Rick Scott win .
How could Floridians have elected such a “ perplexing “ character, who made his personal fortune from cheating hundreds of millions from Medicare , who ruined our environment forever having relaxed laws to favor Big Agriculture?
Either Floridians are not very smart or have a very short memory.
Or , most likely , the elections were rigged.
9
Who hasn't experienced trouble with their computer or software? Why does a once-every-year-or-so voting require fancy, complicated, expensive, and bug-ridden software?
Software requires time, money, and developer and customer service time to work out bugs. Paper ballot = simplicity, clarity, and accurate paper trail.
Voter mistakes and malfeasance may still occur but are likely to be limited with simple to use and to count paper ballots.
FYI: MA uses paper ballots the voter fills in (check the box). Ballots are machine counted.... not dissimilar to college boards.
Before submitting his/ her ballot to the machine, if the voter makes a mistake or feels their ballot is not accurate, they may request another ballot and the initial ballot is invalidated and not counted.
Paper ballots are machine counted but retained inside the ballot box and available for manual recount.
MA voters prefer simplicity, clarity, accuracy, and efficiency but not complicated high tech and expensive fancy voting machines.
Florida and Georgia appear to be operating with advanced technology registration and voting tools adapted to the Jim Crow era. Why? = rhetorical question
Create and staff non-partisan election boards who are answerable to the voters and not to the politicians.
Simplifiy voting and educate citizens beginning in high school. Train and practice BEFORE election day, so the finished ballot product works accurately and voters understand what to do.
10
Who was responsible for approving the ballot design? If it was Snipes she should be sued for willful and inexcusable incompetence.
4
White man's supporters blame African American female for election loss. Dog bites Man.
4
All vote-by-mail, paper ballots, that's how we do it here in Oregon and it works great. No chaos at polling stations. No fussy polling machines. Plenty of time for ballots to be counted as most people vote a little early. High voter turnout.
34
@J Jencks That's how Colorado does it. Simple, effective, accountable.
2
This is exactly how it should be done. You also get registered to vote when you are born. it just makes sense.
2
This is good news, incompetent to do the job, elderly, and ignorant of change. Let's hope the next person is competent, and cleans out the staff as well.
4
Anticipate, dear readers, the Incompetence defense forthwith:
With all the new-fangled modern stuff and kids growing so fast these days, who can really pay attention to this kind of thing anyway?
@Don, its working for Ivanka! Email is so complicated...
Alleged "Russian operatives" spend 500k on Facebook adverts (a literal drop in the Ms. Clinton's 1bln election budget overall), and the narrative is that the POTUS election was "stolen". Meanwhile, an Democratic election official in Florida resigns over vote counting "errors" and the narrative is, "well, those darn ballots are flawed, out vote counting mechanics are antiqued, yadda yadda"
Pure partisan hypocrisy.
14
Was Snipes unable to manage the vote counting because of incompetence or did she oversee the execution of a Democrat conspiracy to commit voter fraud?
You can't have it both ways.
A 75 year old, given old and faulty equipment and a company of underpaid and overworked employees, probably tried her best, which may not have been good enough.
If in fact scores of county employees were fraudulently filling out ballots in favor Democrat candidates under Snipes brilliant direction and impeccable execution, it seems odd that no one was seen filling out fake ballots nor has any whistleblower come forward to spill the beans.
4
@Bombadil Given??? She had plenty of time to improve anything that required it.
1
@vulcanalex
Her incompetence didn't just start on November 6, 2018 and wasn’t limited to the election ballot tabulation. Her incompetence deprived her of the presence of mind or leadership or management or where-with-all to get the county to fix and upgrade the counting machines and processes over time.
3
@Bombadil
Ageism is as bad as sexism, racism, and other biases that stereotype people. Perhaps Dr. Snipes was incompetent, but being 75 is irrelevant. I've known 80 year olds who were more intelligent and capable than 35 year olds.
2
I am beyond tired of the word "embattled." Goes to show just how badly, and how often, our political systems are falling apart. Look back a few years in the news and I bet you'd have hardly ever seen this word used.
3
Just as there are age concerns when the elderly drive and more oversight is required by DMV to issue drivers' licenses, there needs to be greater supervision when the elderly are put in positions of power in government. This woman was definitely in over her head, and should not have been allowed to remain w/o greater supervision and daily evaluation.
There should be age limits for all people in government, including senators, presidents, and congress members. Perhaps 70 as the limit.
4
@boji3 she was a replacement of another incompetent. I don’t think it’s her age.
5
@boji3
There's a short story, I think by Ray Bradbury, where when people reach a certain age they're automatically put to death. If we did that, we could save a tremendous amount of money on Social Security and Medicare. That way young people would have much more money to spend on the latest devices that come out of Silicon Valley. Everything would be better. Do you know what ageism is? It's a bias that you express in your comment. Why do you assume that if Dr. Snipes failed, it was due to being 75? And if people don't want old people in office, they won't vote for them. We don't need age limits.
Article 1, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution states "Section 4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators." This section permits the Congress to take control of Federal elections for Representatives and Senators. The U.S. has never done that, and Federal election procedures and district configurations have been left in the hands of the individual states. But given this provision, the Congress has the right to make laws which govern how Federal elections will be conducted in all states. The Congress could pass legislation which requires everyone to vote using the same type of machinery and methods with auditable paper ballots, same voting times, sufficient poll locations so that no one waits more than 30 minutes to vote, and permitting voting to take place on weekend days as well as some workdays, standardizing voting registration requirements, etc. Vote counting should be done by paid professionals using up to date equipment, and random audits should be conducted whenever elections are close to check that there is no cheating. All of these reforms would build confidence in the public that our voting systems are not being tampered with. We need a 21st Century voting system for the whole country.
8
@HipOath Excellent suggestions. And voting on a weekday, as opposed to a weekend day, is a form of voter suppression, as it makes it more difficult for working people (who tended to vote Democratic) to vote. Perhaps voting-by-mail is a solution. Also, while we’re at it, eliminating the antiquated and racist Electoral College would be great.
12
@Northwoods Cynic I find the idea of voting by mail terrifyingly open to criminal abuse. California uses paper ballots that are filled out at the polling place and then tabulated by machine. For me, this is the safest way to vote. Impossible to get rid of the Electoral College in time for 2020 but we need to look at the states where it influences elections the most and work there to minimize its effects. Start now!
2
Someone—how about an NYT reporter—please explain to me how Broward County could come up with such an atrocious ballot design that it resulted in that highly significant (to the point of costing Nelson the Senate seat) undervote. Who was responsible for the design? Who reviewed it? Was that Dr. Snipes's responsibility or her staff? It seems incredible that anyone would have approved that design, and amazing that it actually contravened established STANDARDS for ballot design.
13
I blame trump.
@CA Reader
In Florida, each county designs its own ballot. This ballot was designed by the Democratically controlled Broward election office.
12
Snipes should have explained all this away by saying the County machines were outdated and overheated constantly. That excuse is working for Susan Bucher.
Anywho, I am sorry Dr Snipes resigned. The governor had no serious problems with her previously because the votes went his way. She became a "problem" when it appeared the votes weren't going his way.
5
@Lynn in DC I have no dog in this fight, but people tend to become less competent as they age. Unfortunate, but true. It’s time, I think, to consider age limits for all those whose actions could be detrimental to the general public. And that should certainly include presidents, surgeons, pilots, popes, heads of election boards, and many others. There is no substitute for competence.
1
@Lynn in DC
The vote still went his way, for whatever reason
Hopefully, the next Democrat will not be so incompetent. Maye the next Democrat will even be honest.
13
Hm, she was appointed by Bush, a Republican. What makes you think she's a Democrat?
@Debraa She was elected several times. And is a Dem for all her life. https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2018/nov/14/andrea-mitchell/broward-county-elections-supervisor-brenda-snipes-/
2
@Tony Some of us would even settle for an honest Republican. Are there any?
I'd love to hear how all you experts think that FL should come up with the money to do what is necessary since they don't have an income tax down there. Maybe cut some of the budget for water resource management.....
3
@SC There a plenty of counties that have no issues, and of course it is a county issue. We don't have an income tax here but my county has a system that double checks through the machine. You have to confirm your selections and can't skip them by mistake. Just copy our system.
1
They could institute a state income tax to help defray the costs.
Whether one is a fan of movies, stage or sport, there is always a time for exit. That chosen exit as shown by Barry Sanders and Jim Brown is best done when one is at their prime. Watching Muhammad Ali in the ring way past his best years was painful. Political types seem not to know when their leading roles on stage are behind them. Too often we see the effects of tiredness and other accompaniments of normal aging. There are far too many old people in positions which affect futures of the younger. We have had our time on stage and need to exit left and remain citadels of wisdom while offstage.
5
@Francis Agreed. But too often, an inflated sense of ego gets in the way.
1
@Northwoods Cynic That's so true. Cases in point: Hillary Clinton, in politics. In sport: Roger Federer, who now has to take long gaps between tournaments and only plays a select few tournaments with high ranking points because he still wants to be number one in spite of the fact that he can't play, or rather, prefers not to play on clay courts. How is that fair to younger players who play most of the tournaments during the year. It's preferential treatment. Politicians are similar. They won't get off the stage. Time for the next generation.
Can someone give me an example of a Democrat winning an election, "counting all the ballots" and the election then flipping to a Republican? IF so, I'll accept the Democrats weren't trying to steal this election. (In 2000 W led in Florida by 1300 ballots on election night and after the recount won by 600) Until then two facts:
First, the Democrats "recounted" their way to many stolen election victories. "Landslide" Lyndon Johnson stole a Senate seat from Coke Stevenson by less than a 100 ballots. Al Franken stole a seat from Norm Coleman by continuing to find ballots until he had enough to win.
Second, on 11/9 the NYT published the results from Tarrant County, TX to the 100th of 1%. The same day they "found" 83,000 uncounted ballots or 12% of the vote from Broward County. Either Texans live in a different century or these ballots were previously invalidated and suddenly validated in order to overturn the election. How else do you explain Texas being able to calculate election return 1000 times more accurately than Florida?
The Washington Post confirmed the Democratic strategy was to change the rules regarding the validity of ballots. The original decisions were made without knowing the results of the election. Those decisions have to stand. Recounting introduces bias.
Just because the Republicans won the seats after the recount doesn't mean protests regarding skullduggery was unwarranted. I believe the Democrats were trying to steal the election. Again.
16
@jkemp
You can believe what you want, and you evidently do. Personally, I believe that a recount of Florida ballots in 2000 would have handed the presidency to Al Gore.
BTW, why is the phrase "counting all the ballots" in quotes?
10
@GPS Your personal opinion is uninformed, the Herald did a very extensive analysis. Even CNN admitted a legal recount would have elected Bush. https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/31/politics/bush-gore-2000-election-results-studies/index.html
10
@vulcanalex
That's quite an interesting interpretation of the CNN story, and not one I could agree with after following the link you cite... and reading the whole article.
According to the CNN story, the first review, which counted only undervotes, deemed Bush likely to have won. In the two subsequent studies, which counted overvotes as well as undervotes, Gore would have won.
This is all "inside baseball" as far as comments on the current article are concerned; my comment was in response to @jkemp's opening sentence: "Can someone give me an example of a Democrat winning an election, "counting all the ballots" and the election then flipping to a Republican?" ... to which the answer is "Bush vs Gore".
In Florida, there seems to be more than enough incompetence and dishonesty to go around; however, the historical record points more strongly and obviously to Republican operatives, at least for dishonesty.
[Insert your own joke about opinions here, if you like.]
1
The Dems counting the ballots were busy filling them out as well. Not the first time they've attempted to steal an election...taking the high road no doubt...
13
@antifascist This Floridian does not agree with you. The comment sounds very Trump-like making a statement about fraud without offering any proof. It was perhaps a flawed ballot that caused many not to vote for Nelson and others.
2
@Tonjo Designed by who? Run by who? Who was elected not appointed at the last election? Who is a Dem, elderly and incompetent? Sounds like another loser I could mention.
1
She was a shining example... of an utterly incompetent political appointee. Her partner in partisanship in Palm Beach County should be next.
27
@Chris not an "appointee"- a "hack".
3
It's not Snipe's fault that Obama couldn't get Gillum over the finish line. She did her best, but they just couldn't manufacture enough votes.
15
Yet Kemp in GA, directly responsible for voting oversight, amidst voting machines failing, too few machines be delivered to minority precincts, and even machines arriving without power chords, gets elected governor.
20
@TheUglyTruth A great example of voter suppression, and it worked.
3
I have no idea whether Ms. Snipes did anything wrong or resigned under pressure. But it's worth noting that she's 75 years old. People who are that age tend to retire.
10
@MyThreeCents
Ageism at its finest.
Bernie Sanders is 77 and is fully capable.
Let us judge people as individuals, not as members of a group.
1
@MyThreeCents
I live nearby, and I have an idea. She botched every election she was involved with, and was ultimately hounded out of office by both political parties. People like THAT tend to retire.
If age is no barrier to hiring, then it should be no barrier to firing.
4
@G.S. He is??? I disagree he needs to retire due to having policies at odds with the constitution. His proposal to regulate buy backs is only the most glaring example, totally illegal.
The failure of ballot design, an all-too-familiar story, reflects a cultural failing more than a personal one. Consider step-by-step assembly instructions or--worst case--computer software instructions. All are written by people who are skilled and knowledgeable and understood by the skilled and knowledgeable. Sadly, this leaves out most users and consumers. A little more humility and consideration would make life easier and better for billions.
6
This is not, as some have suggested, accountability. Allowing someone to resign with full benefits who has broken the law several times--and with a little investigation probably broken the law several times more--is not accountability. This should be the beginning of the investigation followed by appropriate criminal indictments and prosecutions for those involved. It's also obvious that it isn't just one person who is inept or corrupt. These criminal acts were committed by many people inside and outside the Broward County elections department.
The fact that her predecessor, who was removed for similar election shenanigans, was given a school counseling position for which she was unqualified and 55 qualified candidates didn't even get an interview, then got a raise that paid her twice that of her peers, suggests how deep and wide the corruption is in Broward County.
46
This continuing fiasco (including Palm County) only points out the need for serious reform. Problem is that the politicians have only thrown more complexity into a system that has demonstrated an inability to handle the basics. So the answer has to be return to the basics. Vote on one day. True absentee ballots signed on the envelope in front of a notary or election office official. Have the primary ballot design done by the Secretary of State's office (all statewide races) with space after that for local races.
The problem is the system design. The system is run by barely trained amateurs (no disrespect). You have to design a system to be run by them. It's sort of like the menu at an Applebee's. They casn't be assured of finding a chef to run their kitchen so the menu is designed to be run by cooks (nor chefs) with a little training. Yeah the food could be better but it gets the job done. If you want Micheline quality food then you have to find the chefs and pay them. Counties can't afford to do that so you design the system for the staff you can get.
We vote on paper which is then immediately scanned as you leave the polling place. Countywide results are available within an hour of polls closing. It's not hard.
6
@Fred
"We vote on paper which is then immediately scanned as you leave the polling place. Countywide results are available within an hour of polls closing. It's not hard."
That's the way it's done in the Florida Panhandle counties (the Republican counties). During the the 2000 Florida recount, those counties always had the same vote tally, no matter how many times they were recounted.
It's the Democratic counties in the southeast that had hanging chads and different vote tallies every time the vote was counted.
(It's important to remember that no matter how many times the votes were counted in 2000, Gore was never ahead... not one single time.)
3
Look the mistake made by sheep is that we are all getting sheared. Some get slaughtered. To think any politician wants all people to vote let alone count it is false. They want their voters to vote and those be counted. Democracy at the voting booth is thwarted before any vote is cast on Election Day.
I cannot understand why all precincts across the country do not use the same voting machines and ballot templates. This would certainly save money and aggravation.
10
Because then the people in power could not manipulate them for the desired outcome.
@Sheila Dropkin Yes. But that would require cooperation between states, and cooperation between counties. Americans have never been good at that. Going back to the terror attacks of 9/11, the NYPD and the NYFD each had emergency radios, but the radios of one department could not communicate directly with the radios of the other department. That’s consistent with the conceit of “rugged individualism” that still exists in this country.
1
@Sheila Dropkin I am having a hard time understanding why we don't have a clear and uniform ballot nationally and why voting is not compulsory.
Let's see if the good Dr. has a soft landing and a pay raise in her future.
The under vote fiasco might be rewarded.
A Trump appointment to a voter fraud commission?
1
Democrats are right to focus on the 30k voters in Broward County who failed to tick the Senate candidate box -- especially when Scott (R) won by 10k votes over Nelson (D) for the Senate seat.
HOWEVER, Florida's statewide turnout was only ~55%, which is horrible given the importance of the state to our national economy and the significance of these midterms. 7-8 million people eligible to vote failed to do so. Even if the disenfranchised felons could have voted, voter apathy led millions others to stay home throughout early voting and on Election Day. Democrats, that's your primary problem!
8
enjoy your retirement
hopefully we don't read
about you filing a lawsuit
for this and that
3
"Earlier on Sunday, Dr. Snipes told reporters that it was clear from the problems that occurred during the past week’s recounts that elections procedures needed to be updated."
Really, well she had 18 years to make improvements and failed. I wish her well in her retirement.
50
@Ann P Why do we have stupid people in charge of the most important right we have?
1
Look at the last paragraph in the article.
At least one person who takes responsibility snd does not try to blame others for her failures.
2
@G.S.
Easy to "take responibility" when there are no consequences for one's actions. She is retiring with full pension!
4
@yoka
There are plenty of people who retire with full pension, yet blame others for the filures. Few who accept the blame.
And nothing was obviously done since the 2000 fiasco! That's eighteen years ago! Florida remains America's largest swamp, in more ways than one.
48
Come to Chicago and the state of Illinois. No gators but lots of swamp.
“The ballots are in the building,” she said on Saturday, adding: “I know that sounds trite. It sounds foolish.” Ms. Snipes said as she exited stage left.
8
She did her job. Let's not forget that. Were the machines used for voting picked by her office? Follow the trail.
2
@pointofdiscovery She did her job poorly, we should also not forget that.
12
It is not her fault! The whole election process is still in the pre-digital age and needs severe modernization.And that is just the technology side.
6
“including a poorly designed ballot that may have contributed to a weak showing by the defeated Senate incumbent, Bill Nelson.”
So, you people already are making excuses for another loss? Everything used in this election was approved prior to the election. EVERYTHING. Complaining after the fact is sour-grapes. Just like complaining about others using social media better than you. Snipes is a sweet old lady that doesn’t know what she is doing. Leave her alone.
2
@Pilot
Approved? By whom? As the article states, the ballot was in violation of national guidelines. I think it is very plausible that the 30,000 fewer votes for Senator than for other offices were due to that very poor placement decision. I have no idea whose "fault" it was, but Snipes honorably fell on her sword. I'll give her that.
And everybody uses social media better than I do, and I do not complain about it.
3
@Pilot--And just who do you think approved the machines we use, the budget for our elections office etc... Our Republican legislature, that's who. I agree that Snipes is a sweet lady but she did the best she could with what they gave her.
2
@Pilot
Sweet old ladies should not be in charge of elections. She should be left alone in retirement, not while in office.
3
Hope they get straightened out.
But it's kind of insulting to Democrats to imply that the design of the ballot may have cost them votes--why might it not also have caused Republicans votes?
11
@Talbot Doesn't the ballot design problem go to where the actual, oval to fill, to record a vote, was located on the printed ballot? My current understanding is that the location to record the vote for Senator, generally, or for Nelson, in particular, was not prominently located, in an easy to understand, graphic design, sense on the ballot, but that the space to make that vote was buried under the printed instructions, in a less easy to see, and less obvious location. Whether this lack of clarity in design affected both candidates, equally, or the incumbent especially, is a very important question, answer to which I do not currently know.
4
@Talbot
It cost both Republicans and Democrats votes for sure. However, from what I've ready, Broward county votes heavily in favor of democrats, so if all 30000 of those voters actually voted for the senate race, it is likely that a majority of them would have been for Nelson. Enough to make up 10,000 votes? probably not... over 2/3rds of that 30k would have had to go to Nelson.
Then again, that's assuming that all of those 30k didn't vote for the senate election because of the ballet design. It's not unlikely that many deliberately chose not to vote in that race.
1
@Talbot, it likely did cost Republicans Senatorial votes, but Broward is a pretty blue county, so the majority of the lost votes would have been for Nelson.
2
The article says, "She was appointed in 2002 by Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican, after the previous supervisor, Miriam Oliphant, was suspended."
Dr. Snipes is supposedly a democrat. Here is more proof that corruption has no political party affiliation or skin color.
She was selected after Jeb helped his brother, George, Jr., get elected through voter manipulation.
Anyone who has kept up with this corrupt fiasco knows that these were not "accidents". There was plain and simply ballot tampering to get Ric Scott and DeSantis "elected".
Good People across America - and especially Florida and Georgia - who believe in free and fair elections with every vote cast and counted MUST step up and bring civil lawsuits against the officials involved for abuse of power.
This corruption must not stand. Not now. Not ever again in OUR United States of America.
35
@njglea--There was no corruption. Simply an extremely close election that triggered first a machine recount and for the elections with less than 1/4 of 1% a hand recount. That was done and the results are in. I find it reprehensible that anyone would question the integrity of Dr. Snipes. Everybody always needs a scapegoat when things don't go the way they anticipated.
4
@njglea
Why is it every time a Democrat loses a close election, the election was somehow not fair? The votes were counted three times. The Democrats in these two elections lost, plain and simple. Get over it.
18
@njglea
She was appointed by Jeb Bush to fill a suddenly empty Supervisor of Election position in Broward County (normally an elected position).
However, after that she kept being elected over and over again to that position by the Democratic electorate of Broward County.
2
One would think that designing a standard, human-friendly ballot template would be easy. Odd that Broward County seems to be the only one with this problem. One suggestion: design a ballot template and have volunteers of many she’s and backgrounds test it by giving them a list of fake candidates belonging to imaginary political parties, and see whether they can fill it out quickly and correctly.
Plus, make sure there’s an easy audit trail, and perhaps a way the registrar can mark a ballot as invalid.
15
@John M: I meant volunteers of many ages - spell check disagreed.
2
@John M--Not true my friend. In the Bush/Gore election it was Palm Beach County with the butterfly ballot. The amount of state amendments on this years ballot in Florida made it extremely long and most people felt like they had to rush through it but rest assured the recounts were done and the results are now set in stone.
1
The Nov. 6 election results showed that some 30,000 Broward voters did not make a choice in the Senate race — a significant undervote attributed to a ballot design that tucked the contest on the bottom left-hand corner of the page.
That design was in violation of national guidelines that recommend not listing any race under the voter instructions.
It led some Democrats to believe that the design might have cost Mr. Nelson the election.
----------
America's and Florida's 3rd world democracy keeps rolling down the Republican line.
Heads Republicans win: tails Democrats lose.
What a nightmare.
Time for a new federal Voting Rights Act to stamp out local incompetence, malfeasance and 3rd-world voting habits.
76
@Socrates--I live in Broward and my Senate choices were not at the bottom left hand side. Of course there may have been local races for individual cities that placed it there, I don't know. One thing I am sure of. There were no untoward intentions. Our state just happens to be a purple state and elections are extremely down the middle.
15
@John
Here's a picture of the ballot.
Senate choices were at the bottom left hand side under the instructions.
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/confusing-ballot-design-could-affect-us-senate-election-outcome-in-florida/869910732
9
@Socrates
A Democrat wins and all is right with the world. A Republican wins and our democracy is circling the drain (again). The partisan whining is getting really old...
23
Do not assume malice when incompetence will suffice.
79
@Elizabeth, Rather, why split hairs when both are equal?