Judge: 'Unlawful' Destruction of Ballots in Race Wasserman Schultz Won
Remember Debbie Wasserman Schultz?
Yes, I know, you’d like to forget her as she fades into obscurity — particularly when evidence emerges that she may have tried to rig an election.
Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, may be beloved by family members, but that’s pretty much it. Rank-and-file Democrats detest her for her god-awful handling of the Democratic National Committee’s top role — a position she was forced to resign from after email hacks and numerous scandals. The party’s left fringe believes Wasserman Schultz and her retinue have engaged in pretty sketchy behavior to keep them down.
Now, I know that supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders do indulge in some tinfoil haberdashery from time to time. However, this conspiracy claim appears to have some legitimacy.
See, Florida has some fairly strict “sunshine” laws when it comes to public transparency, and this spills over to elections. So, when Wasserman Schultz faced a difficult primary challenge in 2016 and won with 58 percent of the vote, it was well within the rights of challenger Tim Canova to request a recount of the ballots.
The only problem is that after much stalling, it turns out the ballots had been destroyed. As in, very illegally.
The saga has wound its way through the court system, but a judge ruled Friday that the “elections supervisor in Florida’s second-most populous county broke state and federal law by unlawfully destroying ballots cast in Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s 2016 Democratic primary … in a case brought by the congresswoman’s challenger who wanted to check for voting irregularities,” according to Politico.
We just won our lawsuit on summary judgment. Court ruled that Broward Supervisor of Elections illegally destroyed all paper ballots in our primary against @DWStweets. We are walking the walk on election Integrity & need your help now, small donations at https://t.co/93JqKJImOr pic.twitter.com/lgfLDpiMoo
— Tim Canova (@Tim_Canova) May 14, 2018
Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes has already been under extreme scrutiny since the incident happened, and what happened during 2016 looks like it’s going to make her job a whole lot harder.
“During the upcoming election, the Department of State will send a Florida elections expert from the Division of Elections to Supervisor Snipes’ office to ensure that all laws are followed so the citizens of Broward County can have the efficient, properly run election they deserve,” a written statement from the office of Florida Gov. Rick Scott said.
Snipes and her lawyer haven’t commented on the ruling. Keep in mind, too, that Snipes got her job 15 years ago when her predecessor screwed up the 2002 Democrat gubernatorial primary.
There are two takeaways from this. First, Snipes has been on the job a decade and a half and, in spite of Florida’s famous sunshine laws, she still doesn’t realize that she can’t destroy ballots. And second, it’s so hard to find good governmental help these days.
In all fairness, Snipes claimed that she accidentally signed a certification that no cases were pending involving the ballots (this is a blatant lie; Canova had repeatedly requested the ballots). She called it a “mistake” and insisted that “nothing on my part that was intentional.” Which is why she still has her job, of course.
I’m not Florida’s governor and I don’t have anyone to mollify. However, I think this is pretty much a fireable offense. And, furthermore, I don’t think Snipes did this without permission — not from the very top, anyway.
Wasserman Schultz won easily with 57 percent to Canova’s 43, although this didn’t seem to jibe with polls that showed the race significantly closer. That doesn’t necessarily prove anything, except for the fact that Floridians are getting awfully tired of Wasserman Schultz’s presence.
And if you don’t believe me, just ask them about her IT guy.
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