Less Early Voting In Broward: Blame Elections Chief Brenda Snipes
BY BUDDY NEVINS
At 7 a.m. tomorrow morning, early voting for the primary begins in Miami Dade County. At 10 a.m. it begins in Palm Beach County.
Voters in Broward County will have to wait until Saturday at 10 a.m. to start early voting.
The late start to early voting is another example of the ineptitude of Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes.
Brenda Snipes
Recent years have seen numerous missteps by Snipes that can only be described as anti-voter.
She refused to include return postage paid envelopes with mail ballots for years, forcing residents to pay over $1 to vote.
She has overseen elections with needlessly long lines at the polls. She found 1000 uncounted ballots days after an election. Her indecision has stymied attempts to build her much-needed an election machine warehouse for more than a decade.
Now she is denying voters by limiting early voting to nine days rather than 14 days.
Snipes’ opponent in the Democratic primary David Brown contends her late starting early voting is “voter suppression.”
Wrong.
Turnout is not the point.
The point is that Snipes’ job to make voting as convenient as possible for us, the resident of Broward County who pay her salary.
Offering voters less opportunity to early vote than other counties should lead primary voters to question: Should Snipes be running elections for the next four years?
August 14th, 2016 at 4:01 pm
Received my new voter registration card with wrong Senate district on it. When I called the SOE office, the employee argued with me that my card could not possibly be wrong and I was reading it wrong. The enire office is inept starting with Dr Snipes. Time for a change!
August 14th, 2016 at 5:42 pm
How many pensions does she need ??
One from the school system as Principal at Markham Elem and one as an Elected Offical. This is big money from the taxpayer !! Send her home !!
August 14th, 2016 at 5:52 pm
Yes! She has done a great job! Honest thorough, and devoted to getting the job done! Stop with the libel negative narrative.
August 14th, 2016 at 5:54 pm
Should Snipes be running elections for the next four years? In answer to your question, NO! for many reasons including a disdain for the voters and some sloppy handling of ballots and voter cards.
However, early voting must be a very expensive activity. I held signs at one location for my favorite Presidential candidate in the primary earlier this year. The location was in NE Fort Lauderdale at a fairly busy mall. Many machines and several poll workers remained idle for hours and hours and days and days.
The method of voting in Florida is archaic. There must be a better way to vote and to prevent fraud.
August 14th, 2016 at 7:57 pm
Buddy I have to disagree with you when it comes to Dr. Snipes between Dade County and Palm Beach she is the only one that gives free mailing to all of those that want to mail in their votes and it seems that you are supporting David Brown who only has his desires to win, but he is a total loser.I still laugh when he criticized Dr, Snipes and fred Bellis in a picture that was taken and lol it turns out David took the picture to once again show his arrogance what experience does he have other then being a political consultant ?
August 14th, 2016 at 8:09 pm
That piece is raciss.
August 14th, 2016 at 8:23 pm
“Should Snipes be running elections for the next four years?”
HELL NO !!!!!!!!
August 14th, 2016 at 9:39 pm
Dear Mr. Nevins,
You seem to have a problem with Dr. Snipes and the way she conducts the elections in Broward County. In fact, it seems you have a problem with her personally. I saw another one of your op-ed pieces on here about a month ago on Dr. Snipes and like this one, it seemed petty and juvenile.
I’m a registered democrat and I always go to the polls on Election Day. I’ve never had a problem. During the General Elections in 2008 and 2012, I may have had to wait a little, but not so much that I got impatient, aggravated or tired.
I think Dr. Snipes is the most qualified person to hold the title “Supervisor of Elections” and I think one week prior to the elections gives Broward County residents ample time to vote.
You and David Brown need to find a REAL cause fo champion because this one? Well, I’d hardly call it a “cause”.
– K
August 15th, 2016 at 3:59 am
I am sorry but a diffence of 5 days in Esrlt voting is nickpicking.
What would these five days cost us taxpayers vs the estimated numbwr of voters?
Frankly the percentage of voters wss WAY UP FROM CURRENT LEVELS BEFORE WE HAD EARLY VOTING! The reasons for lower voting turn outs are cultural and social and I believe TOTALLY UNRELATED TO EARLY VOTING DAYS.
I would say voter ID laws depress voting and are a cure of a non-existant problem – illegal voting.
While there may or may not be problems with Dr Snipes the issue of early voting days is NOT one of them
August 15th, 2016 at 9:58 am
As a paid political “con”sultant Mr Browns fees would triple according to some if he were to become SOE.
With supporters like Mikkie Belvedere ET AL who “allegedly” collects unsealed absentee ballots from the geriatric that don’t have enough saliva to seal the envelope that there is a “Quid pro quo”.
August 15th, 2016 at 2:23 pm
Once upon a tine, Brenda Snipes could get re-elected on the merit of having cleaned up Miriam Oliphant’s mess. That honeymoon is long over. In fact, she has been more and more like the paranoid, incompetent Oliphant in recent years. Think about it… If we had elected Dave Brown in 2000, we would have avoided the disaster that followed and the disaster that we are about to face! By the way, Norm Price is spreading false informatiom. According to the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections’ website, absentee ballots are postage paid by that office.
August 15th, 2016 at 3:17 pm
Snipes is an absentee. Supervisor of Elections is really Fred Bellis. Bellis runs the office and his campaigning day and night for Snipes from his desk in the Supervisor’s Office. That breaks many laws.
August 15th, 2016 at 8:35 pm
Miami Dade has given postage paid absentee ballots in the past, I’m just not sure if they are this election.
FROM BUDDY:
Postage is paid by Miami-Dade Elections, according to its website
August 16th, 2016 at 11:00 am
vote early and often
August 16th, 2016 at 6:11 pm
I, as do many of you, regularly obtain the voter file from the SOE for my clients. Years ago, early in Snipes’ tenure, this voter data was always made available in about 8 to 10 days after an election.
Now, she does not release that data for 45 full days after the election citing election law and saying “I do not have to provide certification of the election to the state for 45 days. When I have done that, then I will release the data.”
Now the problem here is for example: the primary is August 30th. There are roughly 60 days until the general. Her failure to release that data effectively DENIES candidates access to that data until just 15 days before the general!
Of course Snipes has access to it, doesn’t she? She and her tool Bellis, use that data in county offices, on county time for her campaign.
She is impeding the campaigns of every candidate who wants to use that data for their campaigns by denying them access to it in a timely manner. This has only been like this for a couple of years, but it is a serious dis-service to her constituents and the overall election process.
This woman is supposed to make voting easier, supposed to make accessing data expedient and convenient for campaigns. Rather she works at just the opposite. She restricts and impedes everyone who deals with her office in any way she can.
She charges us over $280.00 for the full county-wide file, while Miami Dade, who has more registered voters, charges just $20.00! I’ll bet Snipes doesn’t pay $280.. for that data…what do you think?
She only got elected because she was a better alternative to Oliphant. Well, Mickey Mouse could have beat Oliphant given her performance. She looked good up against an Oliphant.
This year, we have David Brown who is the “new” Snipes and Snipes is the “new” Oliphant meaning that Brown will get elected, not on his merits, but rather the poor performance of Snipes.
She needs to go, but I am throwing up in my mouth a bit at the prospect of a David Brown in there.
Always the lesser of two evils, never a choice of two good candidates.
Broward sucks and so does Snipes. She needs to GO!
August 17th, 2016 at 9:39 pm
#10 is so right about mayor Mikkie Belvedere. His comment is just the beginning of opening a can of worms. For years she has run her club as if you would hardly know that a presidential election campaign is going on…