Governor Rick Scott issues an executive order to suspend Brenda Snipes, the Broward County Supervisor of Elections who was criticized widely over a series of irregularities in the ballot counting process.

"Incompetence and neglect of duty”

The order from Scott cited Snipes' "misfeasance, incompetence and neglect of duty” to justify her suspension.

"Every eligible voter in Florida deserves their vote to be counted and should have confidence in Florida’s elections process,” Scott said in a statement to POLITICO.

“After a series of inexcusable actions, it’s clear that there needs to be an immediate change in Broward County and taxpayers should no longer be burdened by paying a salary for a Supervisor of Elections who has already announced resignation.”

Scott will replace Snipes with Peter Antonacci, a former lobbyist.

“I know that Pete will be solely focused on running free and fair elections, will not be running for election and will bring order and integrity back to this office,” Scott said.

The very public debacle of the Florida election and resulting recount led to greater scrutiny on Snipes' actions, statements, and role in previous recount fiascos.

In one of the worst examples of incompetence, Snipes proudly announced that they had completed their recount in time for the deadline - then missed it by two minutes. As a result, the numbers in the recount were not used in the official tally.

“Basically I just worked my a** off for nothing," said an elections worker at the time.

Politico reports that Democrats had soured on Snipes and some blamed her for the loss of the U.S. Senate election in Florida because of the poor way in which she designed the ballots.

Snipes had already announced that she was retiring and not seeking another term of the supervisor of elections.

She leaves office with $130,000 in yearly retirement.

Here's a local Florida report about the suspension: