‘We were scared’: Election workers recall 2018 Broward protest that’s now under federal review

A Broward elections official is criticized by former President Trump and others in 2018, and a large protest ensues with fears that election workers would be harassed and harmed.

The crowd of Donald Trump-supporting protesters converged that year on an elections office in Lauderhill, pressing against the building entrance at times. Over several days, as ballots were tallied, they shouted about “corruption” and of attempts to “steal the vote.” Dozens of police officers showed up to “protect the ballots at all costs.”

The protest from 2018 is drawing fresh attention from the Justice Department, which is reportedly looking into whether the tactics used then served as a model for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Those who worked for the Broward elections office in 2018 recall the fear that loomed large during that dayslong demonstration — with worries it would eventually devolve into an attack.

In recent interviews with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the past election workers recalled the safety precautions in 2018 to protect former Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes and the elections staff.

“My boss’ life was threatened. We had to take her out the back door,” recalled Fred Bellis, former chief of operations. “They came to her home and threatened her.”

Many other things stood out to the election workers, from how unusual it was that so many protesters had out-of-state license plates to how seemingly well-orchestrated the protest was.

“It was an inside joke, that these people are not even from Broward County. It was wild,” said John Way, who worked at the elections office at the public services director in 2018. “Everyone was talking about it.” Each day “we were taking off our badges and entering from a different side of the building,” he said. Their IDs needed to be off “so we wouldn’t be harassed or attacked.”

There were no reports of anyone hurt in Broward’s 2018 protest, and it didn’t rise to the level of the Trump-related protest that grew into a violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Still, the Broward protest drew such concern, officials responded by stepping-up preparations for any similar protest in future elections.

Scrutinizing the 2018 election

The New York Times reported that prosecutors overseeing the seditious conspiracy case of five members of the Proud Boys in the Capitol riot case have expanded their investigation to examine a Central Florida-based blogger with longstanding ties to the far-right group.

According to the report, officials are reviewing whether Jacob Engels “received any payments or drew up any plans” for the 2018 protest against Broward recounts in that year’s gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races, or “has ties to other people connected to the Proud Boys’ activities in the run-up to the storming of the Capitol.”

In an email response to the New York Times, Engels said he exercised his “constitutionally protected free speech rights” to investigate the 2018 Florida recount. “To claim protests and questions regarding fraud during the recount of November 2018 that remained peaceful and lawful were somehow illegal or a dry run for January 6th is a fantastical lie,” he wrote.

Focusing on Broward

On election night in 2018, the Republican Senate candidate, Rick Scott, declared victory over the Democrat, Bill Nelson, but the race was close enough that local officials were set to hold recounts in key locations such as Broward County.

The Broward protest drew members of the Proud Boys in November 2018, when there were two major elections underway, for both the governor and a Congressional seat. Then prominent Republicans, including Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, suggested on social media that the Democrats were trying to steal the election. Many others also were turning their attention to Broward. Engels tweeted he was headed to Broward “to handle this situation” and was going to “stop the steal.”

Trump also criticized Broward in front of TV cameras and on social media, mentioning the Senate race. “Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!” wrote Trump on Nov. 8, 2018.

As protesters gathered outside the elections office in Lauderhill, they directed a chant of “lock her up” at Brenda Snipes, then the county’s supervisor of elections. About 75 Republican protesters also chanted “bye, bye Brenda,” and “stop the steal.” Snipes couldn’t be reached for comment this past week.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, while standing with the crowd, did live interviews with Fox News, calling for Snipes’ removal and saying, “It’s like we have a banana republic down here in Broward County.”

Said Tom Powers, Broward’s Republican chairman, who was at the protest in 2018: “I believed that [elections] office was not doing everything it was supposed to be doing. There were some questionable things that were going on in there.”

But he isn’t drawing any lines connecting Broward’s showing to Jan. 6, 2021.

“There’s a million conspiracy theories out there,” Powers said. “I’m a former [police] officer, I look at evidence. Cold hard facts are the only thing that proves it.”

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement would take more than 17 months to wrap up its investigation, finding none of the wrongdoing alleged by Trump.

A public safety concern

As the crowd formed in 2018, Lauderhill police were “positioned there throughout the day to ensure order was maintained,” according to a police spokesman. But as the crowd got larger, officials at the elections office began to panic. The crowd was getting angry.

Trucks that pick up ballots across county were set up to create a makeshift perimeter to protect the building entrance. Then the Lauderhill police were called, and they wanted an unobstructed view, so the trucks were moved and replaced with barricades.

Bellis, the former chief of operations, was getting increasingly concerned. Authorities were asked to “protect the ballots inside the office,” he said. “We needed to protect the ballots at all costs. We didn’t know if the situation was going to develop and [they would] destroy them.”

Bellis didn’t know who the protesters were, although he saw out-of-state license plates on some cars. And he knew the protesters were getting attention on Fox News. As the hours went on, there was a new concern: death threats against Snipes, Bellis said.

Bellis said a security detail was sent to guard Snipes when she was at her house. “It was very serious,” he said. “Security was there for several days. It was unbelievable.”

‘It got pretty bad’

Election workers could hear and see the commotion outside the building. Way, the then-public services director in 2018, said people bypassed trucks that were used as barriers and were “pressed against the doors to gain entry at certain points. It got pretty bad.” That’s when Way made the call to Lauderhill Police for help.

The protests lasted for several days of the recount. Way felt it was organized because so many protest signs had the same photos of Snipes. “Somebody definitely coordinated the event,” Way said. “It looked too uniform.”

Workers were surprised when Trump also weighed in. Among Trump’s remarks on camera: “You look at what they’ve done, you look at the dishonestly. Look, there’s bad things that have gone on in Broward County. Really bad things.”

The office workers were stunned. “That was mind blowing. We were scared,” Way said. “It was real. And they were screaming that they weren’t going away. And they were convinced, you could see it in their face, they thought they were fighting to save something.

“It was one of the most wildest moments of my entire life,” he said.

Mitch Ceasar, the former chairman of the Broward Democratic Party, came to the protest to observe, after hearing “reports of possible intimidation by the protesters.”

He stayed in the parking lot, but remembers “they were very angry, very intense and significantly misinformed how the county votes and general operations of elections.

“I tried to not directly engage in discussions. I remember thinking they seem to be very intense and somewhat misinformed, I remember thinking that very specifically.”

Calling the police

Lauderhill police said they were called to the scene at 11:23 a.m. Nov. 9, 2018, to the elections warehouse on State Road 7 “in response to a large gathering or protest at the entrance. Upon arrival, officers established a perimeter to ensure the safety of all workers and to prevent anyone from interfering with the business of the SOE [Supervisor of Elections].”

Police spokesman Maj. Michael Santiago said later in the day on Nov. 9, the Broward Sheriff’s Office requested additional personnel to help allow the news media and additional people into the canvassing board viewing areas.

Lauderhill police stayed on site throughout the day and 24 police members were at the site at some point.

According to a police report, a protester from Pompano Beach accused one of the television reporters of touching or pushing him. But eyewitnesses on site, including a police officer who saw their interaction, said the TV reporter did not touch the protester, and it was the protester who “was antagonizing people and making antisemitic slurs at people.”

The protester was told by police to find a ride home because a background check revealed his license was suspended the year before.

Looking forward

Bellis, of the elections office, said he’s glad that federal prosecutors are taking a fresh look at what happened in 2018.

“I think it’s really important because what started in Broward was something that was maybe a preamble in the insurrection, when they orchestrated people to come down to this location,” he said. “It was a travesty to try to ruin the election and the American process.”

Broward’s current Supervisor of Elections, Joe Scott, said the 2018 protest isn’t forgotten. His office reviews “chatter online if people are organizing. We are monitoring certain online platforms,” to be ready for a protest.

And if a statewide recount is triggered, “we have additional security measures we have in place. We expect things to escalate quickly.

“In 2018, and they mimicked in 2020, if the candidate is down, you say, ‘Count every vote.’

“If your candidate is up, you say, ‘Stop counting now, they’re stealing.’ We know that’s the playbook so we will be prepared to beef up security quickly if there’s a statewide recount.”