Not only has former Broward County elections chief Brenda Snipes rescinded her resignation from the post, she is now suing the governor who suspended her.
In a lawsuit filed this week with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Ms. Snipes called the suspension by outgoing Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, “malicious and politically motivated” and demanded that she be reinstated.
“The suspension by Governor Scott, operating in concert with the public airing of the allegations against Snipes, deprived her of liberty and property rights without constitutionally adequate procedures,” her lawsuit reads.
Ms. Snipes was suspended in November for incompetence and possible corruption during last month’s recount battles in her state’s razor-thin races for governor and senator, both won by Republicans.
Broward County was the slowest of Florida’s major counties to complete election returns, missing several legally-mandated deadlines and losing about 2,000 ballots that had been included in the election-night count but not in the machine recount.
Besides Mr. Scott, Republicans from former Gov. Jeb Bush — who appointed her in 2003 — to Sen. Marco Rubio had all called for her resignation.
She resigned Nov. 18, albeit without an effective date, only to rescind it Dec. 2 when Mr. Scott moved to suspend her outright.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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