Snipes in the crosshair: Recount Demand Grows.
Surrounded by a blue wave: Red Coats Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis cry foul.
The minute Dr. Brenda Snipes took the helm as Broward County Elections Supervisor, by default, it was clear that she was in over her head.
The last person to hold the title of Broward County Supervisor of Elections was Miriam Oliphant.
Like Snipes, Oliphant is an African-American female. The difference between the two? Oliphant is younger, brash and physically very attractive.
Dr. Brenda Snipes is older, has more administrative prowess and displays a more lay-back personality.
History is now traveling in reverse.
Former Obama: History doesn’t move in a straight line. It zigs and zags. Sometimes goes forward, sometimes moves back and sometimes it moves sideways.
In November of 2003, Brenda Snipes was appointed by then Gov. Jeb Bush to run the Elections Supervisor’s office after her predecessor Miriam Oliphant was summarily removed from the Supervisor’s post amidst cries of incompetence and at the behest of Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood.
At the time of Oliphant’s removal by Bush, it was no secret that the Jeb Bush had a hard-on for Oliphant; whom he thought was responsible for the 2000 presidential election Hanging Chad debacle involving his brother George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore.
About two weeks earlier, Hood submitted a report to Bush excoriating Oliphant, in which she wrote that Oliphant a Democrat:
exhibits a pattern of neglect of duty and incompetence that threatens or endangers the public welfare.” She said it would be unconscionable to continue to require the state and county to bail out the elections operations because of Oliphant’s ineptitude.
Today in November 2018 (15 years after Oliphant’s political execution) Snipes faces cries of incompetence and ineptitude by Republicans and the news media. History is traveling in reverse and rightfully so — this time.
The only difference is today there is a chant of “Lock her up” coming from a caravan of President Trump supporters, even though there is — at this point — no evidence of fraud, corruption or conspiracy on the part of Snipes’ office.
On Friday, the chants continued outside Broward’s main elections office, as Donald Trump marauding invaders who look more like a lynch mob without jobs as they call for the lifeblood of Snipes job.
In 2003 the only people privately chanting “Lock her up,” were Gov. Jeb Bush and his cohorts. Bush did put Oliphant on trial and attempted to lock her up — but failed in his attempt.
In a memorandum justifying his removal of Oliphant from office, Jeb Bush wrote,
“Ten months of continued neglect and denial make it clear that she has no intention of honoring her promises to the voters of Broward,” Bush said in the letter. “To leave Ms. Oliphant in office would put the voting rights of every citizen of Broward County in chronic jeopardy.“
Oliphant was in office for only three years when Bush’s Dispatch was made public.
Dr. Brenda Snipes has been on the job now, as Supervisor of Elections, for fifteen (15) years and it appears that she hasn’t learned anything much from history or the demise of her predecessor, nor has she acquired much on the job training since.
And although, Brenda Snipes’ incompetence seems to benefit (so far) Rick Scott and Ron De Santis — both Republican candidates in tight contentious races for US Senate and Florida Governor’s office.
It is not far-fetched to believe that Scott will remove her from office before he leaves because if he doesn’t De Santis will when he replaces Scott as Florida’s next Governor.
Staff Writer: Clinton Franklin
