Brenda Snipes, elections chief at center of Florida 2018 recount turmoil, dies at 80

Brenda Snipes, the former Broward County elections supervisor whose 15-year tenure ended in controversy over her handling of Florida’s 2018 midterm recounts in the state’s most liberal county, died on Thursday at the age of 80.

Snipes’ daughter, Melanie Snipes Thomas, would not disclose the cause of death or where her mother died, but said the family is working on funeral arrangements. She said her mother, who was appointed by the governor in 2003 to oversee Broward’s troubled elections office and then subsequently elected four times, cared deeply about the community she represented.

“She made voting accessible to people across Broward and we know for a fact that she was a symbol of pride for a lot of people in the African-American community who thought that she represented it well,” said Snipes Thomas.

Born in Talladega, Alabama, Snipes moved to Broward County in 1964 with her husband, Walter Snipes, to begin her career as an educator as a teacher at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach. She later became principal of nearby Robert Markham Elementary School.

After Snipes retired as an educator in 2003, then-Gov. Jeb Bush asked her to replace Miriam Oliphant, whom he had suspended and accused of mismanagement and neglectful oversight of the 2002 primary election. Snipes’ daughter said she “threw her heart and soul in the job,” even though she’d just retired as an educator.

“I was really proud of her for that because holding elected office can be really self-sacrificing and I think that it takes a special person to look beyond that to do what they think would be meaningful or impactful for people,” said Snipes Thomas.

During Snipes’ tenure, her office oversaw a high school pre-registration program for students turning 18 and received a national award for its partnership with Broward County Schools, according to the office of current Broward elections supervisor Joe Scott. In a statement, Scott said many of the staff currently overseeing elections in Broward County were trained during Snipes’ tenure, and credited her for the office’s success in voter outreach.

“It’s an honor for our office to continue her legacy,” Scott said.

Snipes’ friend and attorney, Burnadette Norris-Weeks, said that Snipes was “community minded” and a “very hard-working individual.” She said that Snipes would go the extra mile to make sure residents had accessibility to voting.

“I can remember a really busy election where there was a person who said they couldn’t get to the polls and actually, we drove out to Century Village somewhere to give the person their ballot,” said Norris-Weeks, “that’s the kind of person she was.”

The 2018 Recount

For years following her appointment by Bush, Snipes’ oversight of elections in Florida’s most Democratic county went largely under the radar — a good thing for an elections supervisor.

In 2016, Snipes’ office was sued by a cannabis advocacy group after some voters realized their ballots were missing a medical marijuana amendment, but a judge ruled that Snipes’ office had appropriately addressed the problem. In a separate case dealing with the 2016 election, a judge ruled that Snipes’ office broke election law by prematurely destroying ballots cast in a congressional primary that year, though the destroyed ballots had been scanned and preserved as high-quality electronic copies.

Things reached a breaking point in 2018 when Florida’s midterm elections were so narrowly decided that statewide contests for governor, U.S. senate and agriculture commissioner required automatic recounts to determine the winners. In heavily Democratic Broward County, Snipes’ office continued in the days after the polls closed to tabulate a deluge of mail ballots that had arrived at the last minute, which would contribute to diminishing Republican leads by the time the results of the election were certified.

READ MORE: How Florida’s clear-cut 2018 midterms devolved into a recount sequel

Snipes was targeted by then-Republican Gov. Rick Scott with unsubstantiated accusations of voter fraud. Scott, who was running for U.S. senate and watching his lead over incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson shrink, sued Snipes for failing to provide a record of counted and uncounted votes following the 2018 election. Then-President Donald Trump attacked Snipes on social media, and Republican politicians, activists and instigators, including members of the far-right Proud Boys, gathered outside the Broward County elections headquarters in Lauderhill to protest.

Snipes’ oversight of the 2018 election was not problem-free; even Democrats were frustrated with her office’s performance and the design of the ballot, which was credited with leading thousands of voters to skip the U.S. senate race. But Norris-Weeks said the false claims of voter fraud that Snipes faced foreshadowed Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election by claiming – without evidence — that the election had been stolen, and other election conspiracies espoused by Republican candidates.

“It became clear to us leading up to 2020 and beyond that these things were purposeful, and they were calculated, and they were planned, and they were a precursor to what was going to happen,” said Norris-Weeks, “and they were testing it out not only in Broward, but in Palm Beach County, where the supervisor was suspended as well.”

A former spokeswoman who handled bilingual communications for Snipes’ office, Evelyn Perez-Verdia, said that extremist groups targeted Snipes through doxxing, and said she was deeply saddened that Snipes’ tenure was used to “divide” people.

“It was very extreme the way that they presented her. It wasn’t the person that I saw. It wasn’t the person that I worked for. The person that they were showing to the world was not the person that I know,” said Perez-Verdia.

Following the pressure from the 2018 election, Snipes attempted to resign from her position but was suspended by Scott before her resignation became effective. Scott’s successor, Gov. Ron DeSantis, ultimately rescinded her suspension after she sued, and allowed her to retire in early 2019.

Snipes’ daughter says that in the years following the aftermath of her resignation, her mother was “at peace” with the situation and was focused on enjoying retirement.

“My mother had a tremendous amount of grace and dignity, it was not something that continued to upset her,” said Snipes Thomas.

This article has been updated to provide further information about controversies involving the administration of the 2016 elections in Broward County.