Beleaguered Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes RESIGNS hours after finally submitting recounted votes following a series of embarrassing blunders including loss of more than two thousand ballots

  • Broward County finally submitted its recounts in Florida's governor, Senate, and state agriculture commissioner race before noon on Sunday
  • Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes tended her resignation just a few hours later
  • Snipes, 75, has had a career dogged by accusations of incompetence, bias, legal disputes and botched elections
  • Broward County was one of four counties that became infamous during the 2000 presidential recount in Florida
  • Snipes then came under fire again this year after the county missed the Thursday deadline - by two minutes - in reporting results
  • Officials also revealed on Saturday that 2,040 ballots had been either misplaced, misfiled or mixed in with another stack in her office
  • Snipes has not commented on her resignation but an early draft of her letter reportedly discussed wanting to spend more time with her family 

Troubled Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes has handed in her resignation just hours after her office finally submitted the recounted votes following a number of high profile blunders - most notably - the loss of more than two thousand ballots.

Her resignation will reportedly be effective from early January, meaning her replacement will be appointed by Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis.

Snipes', 75, career 15-year career as elections supervisor has been dogged by accusations of incompetence, bias, legal disputes and botched elections.

Broward County was one of four counties that became infamous during the 2000 presidential recount in Florida. 

Snipes then came under fire again this year after the county missed the Thursday deadline - by two minutes - in reporting results in the contested Senate race, which Republican Rick Scott ended up winning.

Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes has handed in her resignation just hours after her office finally submitted the recounted votes with 52 minutes to spare on Sunday

Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes has handed in her resignation just hours after her office finally submitted the recounted votes with 52 minutes to spare on Sunday

Snipes has come under fire for her management of the recount

Snipes has come under fire for her management of the recount

Broward struggled with its infamy again when officials revealed on Saturday that 2,040 ballots had been either misplaced, misfiled or mixed in with another stack. 

Snipes, who is black, said afterward racism was 'probably' a factor in the backlash against her.  When asked specifically if she believed her heritage could be playing a part in the hostile response she declined to elaborate but told the Guardian, 'Probably. Probably'.

On Sunday, the county finally got organized and submitted its recounted vote totals in Florida's governor, Senate, and state agriculture commissioner races, to the secretary of state's office with 52 minutes to spare. Its neighboring Palm Beach County got its votes in a mere one second before the noon deadline.

Snipes declined to comment on speculation that Gov.-elect DeSantis may remove her from office following the errors by her Broward County Office.

'Bye guys!' was all she said with a smile as she left.

Election ballot baskets sit on the floor at the Supervisor of Elections Service Center in Palm Beach

Election ballot baskets sit on the floor at the Supervisor of Elections Service Center in Palm Beach

Republican Mike Caruso (C) hugs his adviser at the Supervisor of Elections Service Center in Palm Beach, Florida

Republican Mike Caruso (C) hugs his adviser at the Supervisor of Elections Service Center in Palm Beach, Florida

A few hours later, sources close to Snipes confirmed she had handed in her notice.

Burnadette Norris-Weeks, an attorney who works as counsel to the Supervisor of Elections Office, said an early draft of Snipes' letter explained she wanted to leave to spend more time with her family.

The letter was reportedly sent to Tallahassee earlier in the day.

Snipes has not yet commented on her resignation.   

Florida has been on pins and needles since the Nov. 6 election day as the entire state under went a recount for three races.

Results were due to the secretary of state by noon. 

Snipes came under fire when it was revealed Broward misplaced two thousand ballots

Snipes came under fire when it was revealed Broward misplaced two thousand ballots

Volunteers in Palm Beach County look at ballots; the county submitted its totals with one second to spare

Volunteers in Palm Beach County look at ballots; the county submitted its totals with one second to spare

On Friday, election workers in all 67 counties began recounting by hand about 93,000 ballots that were not recorded by voting machines.

But Florida's beleaguered Broward County has made yet another election blunder after it was revealed that officials accidentally mixed in ballots from the Senate race into the recount for state's Commissioner of Agriculture .

Early on Saturday, the recount of 22,000 ballots came to an abrupt stop when officials noticed volunteers had mixed 47 manila envelopes from Friday's Senate recount in with those to be hand counted for the commissioner race, Fox News reported.

'It appears there may have been some ballots from yesterday mixed in with the ones for today,' Broward Canvassing Board Judge Deborah Carpenter-Toye said.

'We have been trying to determine what could have caused the drop. What we believe is that in the recount area ... I believe those ballots were probably mixed in with another stack,' Snipes told the elections Canvassing Board on Saturday. 

Volunteers look at ballots during a hand recount in Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday

Volunteers look at ballots during a hand recount in Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday

'The ballots are in the building. The ballots are in this building. There would be nowhere else for them to be. But they are misfiled in this building.'

Snipes, 75, has served as elections chief in the county for 15 years.

But this month's recount saw calls for her head.

After she could not - or would not - say how many ballots remained to be counted during the recount process, along with failing to give regular updates to the state every 45 minutes as required by law, she was sued by Scott's Senate campaign and the National Republican Senate Committee.

The new governor could remove her from office - then-Gov. Jeb Bush removed her predecessor in 2002 after voting problems in the county - or Snipes could be voted out when she's on the ballot again in 2020.

Despite the chaos, Broward county officials did prevail and get their results reported.

In addition to Scott winning the Senate race, Republican DeSantis defeated Democrat Andrew Gillum in the governor's contest and Nikki Fried was the lone Democratic victory with her win in the state agriculture commissioner's race. 

Florida's election woes became national news in 2000 as the presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore ended up in the Supreme Court amid a heated recount battle in the Sunshine state.

Palm Beach county's butterfly ballot and hanging chads became hot topics of debate on the national news. 

Bush eventually prevailed.