Brenda Snipes, the embattled Florida elections supervisor who was the recipient of blistering criticism from President Donald Trump, resigned her post in a letter dated Sunday.
“Although I have enjoyed this work tremendously over these many election cycles, both large and small, I am ready to pass the torch,” Snipes, Broward County’s supervisor of elections, wrote in a letter to outgoing Republican Gov. Rick Scott. “Therefore, I request that you accept my letter of resignation effective January 4, 2019.”
Snipes oversaw the recount efforts in Broward County during the closely watched gubernatorial and Senate races. Ultimately, incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson conceded Sunday to Scott, his GOP challenger, in the Senate race, after recounts — both by machine and by hand — concluded. And, in the gubernatorial race, Democrat Andrew Gillum conceded to Republican Ron DeSantis on Saturday after a machine recount.
That the recounts occurred at all, however, prompted furious criticism from Trump and other GOP officials, who made unsubstantiated allegations against Snipes of voter fraud. Trump tweeted last week that the “characters” running elections in Broward and Palm Beach counties were trying to “find” new votes for Nelson, who had trailed Scott in the tight Senate contest.
Snipes insisted that heavily Democratic Broward County would complete its recount by the deadline, despite several delays.
During this year’s recount, Snipes was criticized for not giving up-to-date information on how many ballots remained uncounted and for processing 22 voided ballots that were accidentally mixed in with valid ones. But a Broward County judge said last week that he had seen no evidence of voter fraud.
Snipes has served in the post for 15 years. After being appointed to clean up the county’s election system in 2003 by a Republican, former Gov. Jeb Bush, she went on to win re-election four times, including most recently in 2016, always by wide margins.
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