Under state law, an elector or campaign can challenge the lawfulness of an absentee ballot, but only before the ballot has been opened from its mail-in envelope. | Alan Diaz/AP Photo Florida GOP chairman accuses Broward election chief of 'shenanigans' in absentee ballot court fight

MIAMI — The election supervisor in Florida’s second-most populous county filed a late afternoon appeal on Election Day that effectively short-circuited a judge’s order concerning the way she opens vote-by-mail absentee ballots.

The decision by Broward Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes to appeal an early-August injunction at 4:07 p.m. Tuesday — less than an hour before the courts shut for the day and less than three hours before polls closed — was denounced by the Republican Party of Florida’s chairman, state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, who accused Snipes of law-breaking “shenanigans." Snipes' lawyer denied the charge.


Under state law, a public official who appeals a court order gets an automatic stay that halts the ruling in question. In this case, a judge on Aug. 10 issued a declaratory injunction preventing Snipes from opening the mail-in ballots in secret or before the county’s three-member Canvassing Board meets to determine the ballots’ validity. At least 86,000 absentee ballots have been cast in Broward.

After the GOP prevailed, Snipes waited until Election Day to file the appeal.

“Obviously, they had weeks to file this appeal and doing so less than three hours before the polls close on primary election night only points to one thing: shenanigans,” Ingoglia said. “It’s clear Supervisor Snipes doesn’t want to follow the law.”

Snipes’ attorney, Burnadette Norris-Weeks, said the office follows the law and suggested that Judge Raag Singhal didn’t understand Florida statute. She also questioned Ingoglia’s comments.

“I have no idea what he means by ‘shenanigans.’ There is no special day to file an appeal ... so long as the appeal is timely,” she wrote via email. “Did you see the Court’s order? Do they understand that what the Court ordered is not the law? Even the amended Order is inconsistent with Florida law.”

The controversy arose in 2016 when Republican poll watchers complained that Snipes’ staff was opening the ballots in private, thereby making it impossible for citizens or groups to question whether the ballots were properly cast.

After Broward made a brief accommodation, the party sued in January of 2017 to make sure Snipes followed the law.

Under state law, an elector or campaign can challenge the lawfulness of an absentee ballot, but only before the ballot has been opened from its mail-in envelope. By opening the ballot before it got to the three-member Canvassing Board, the Republican Party complained, Snipes’ office was breaking the law and making any challenge impossible.