Brenda Snipes, the embattled supervisor of elections in a South Florida county that came under intense scrutiny during the 2018 elections, submitted her resignation late Sunday, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Snipes, who has been the elections supervisor in Broward County since 2003, ends a tenure that was marred by legal disputes, voting discrepancies and withering criticism. She submitted her resignation hours after finishing an election recount, the newspaper reported.
"It is true. She did send it," Burnadette Norris-Weeks, an attorney who works as counsel to the Supervisor of Elections Office, told the Sun-Sentinel.
Norris-Weeks said she saw an early draft of the letter. In the version she saw, she said Snipes said she wanted to spend more time with her family, the newspaper reported.
Snipes did not respond to requests for comment by several media outlets.
The date Snipes' resignation goes into effect is not clear, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Norris-Weeks said she believes it was effective Jan. 2.
If the resignation becomes effective in January, it is likely that Florida Gov.-elect Rick DeSantis will appoint her replacement.
Snipes, 75, has lived in Broward County since 1964, according to the official Broward County Supervisor of Elections website.
In November 2003, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Snipes to replace Miriam Oliphant, who was removed from the post after accusations of mishandling the 2002 gubernatorial primary, CNN reported in 2003. She was elected in her own right in 2004 and was re-elected in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
Snipes' tenure has been fraught with controversy.
In the latest flap, her office submitted the results of a machine recount two minutes past the deadline and also lost more than 2,000 ballots for the 2018 midterm elections, WFOR reported.
A court ruled Snipes had broken election law when she destroyed ballots from the 2016 election 12 months after it, instead of the 22 months required by federal law, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Election results in the 2016 primary were posted on the election office’s website before the polls closed, the newspaper reported.
In 2012, nearly 1,000 uncounted ballots were discovered a week after the election, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
In 2004, approximately 58,000 mail-in ballots were not delivered to voters, the newspaper reported.
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