Florida Election Official Quits Hours After Recount

After recounts, Florida has a new governor and a new senator—and Broward County is going to get a new elections supervisor. Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes handed in her resignation Sunday, hours after a manual recount finished and Democrat Bill Nelson conceded the Senate election to Gov. Rick Scott, the Sun Sentinel reports. Snipes, 75, was attacked as corrupt and incompetent by Scott, President Trump, and other prominent Republicans during the recount process. Her resignation comes after two weeks in which her staff misplaced 2,000 ballots, mixed more than 20 invalid ballots in with 200 good ones, and missed a deadline to submit recount results, reports the Miami Herald.

Snipes' 15 years in the role began in 2003 when then-Gov. Jeb Bush appointed her to replace a predecessor who was fired for incompetence. She was re-elected in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 despite numerous controversies and complaints in the heavily Democratic county. Earlier this year, a judge discovered that Snipes had prematurely destroyed thousands of ballots from the 2016 primaries. In 2016, a medical marijuana question was left off some ballots—and in 2012, a box with 1,000 uncounted ballots was found in a warehouse. Sources tell the Sun Sentinel that Snipes will be leaving in early January, meaning her replacement will be appointed by Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis instead of Scott. who accused her of trying to steal the election. (Trump, who called for Snipes to be fired, claimed that people were donning disguises to vote illegally.)