Broward County elections supervisor mixed invalid provisional ballots into valid batch
Broward County’s elections supervisor mixed 20 invalid ballots with a pile of 205 valid ballots, giving more fuel to Republicans who have alleged Democrats are trying to steal the U.S. Senate election from Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who faces incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson. The mistake was discovered after Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes agreed to turn over 205 provisional ballots to the county’s canvassing board for inspection, according to the Miami Herald.
County officials collected more than 600 provisional ballots on Election Day, a majority of which were deemed invalid for reasons such as registering to vote too late or voting at the wrong precinct. However, a couple hundred provisional ballots were set aside because of a connectivity issue with the system used to look up voter registrations. Precinct workers had 205 voters fill out provisional ballots when the system at the precincts showed they weren’t registered voters, which differed from information at Broward election headquarters. Upon reviewing those provisional ballots, the canvassing board found 20 of those 205 votes had mismatched signatures and said they were illegal. Those votes have already been counted in a voting machine, but have not been added to the final vote count. “The ballots cannot be identified,” Snipes confirmed when a lawyer for the Republican Party asked, according to the Miami Herald.
It’s unclear what happens next, but both parties cried foul upon hearing the news. “This process doesn’t exist. The process is that the ballots aren’t opened. I would suggest to the board that this process would stop,” said Leonard Collins, a lawyer for the Florida Republican Party.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio called the matter “lawlessness.”
Want more lawlessness?#BrowardCounty elections opened 208 provisional ballots without canvassing boards approval as required by law After admitting error submitted them to board which found at least 12 are invalid Guess what? They are going to count all 208 of them anyway — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 10, 2018
Democratic lawyer Marc Elias said he expected some of the voters affected to “fight for their votes.”
MEDIA ALERT: The GOP is trying to throw out 205 valid ballots in Broward County due to alleged signature mismatch on 22 of them. The County Board will decide tomorrow am. We expect some of affected voters there in person to fight for their votes. #CountTheVotes — Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 10, 2018