“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 said in a statement Friday.
Scott had appointed president of Enterprise Florida and the former executive director of the South Florida Water Management District Peter Antonacci, who has no elections experience, to fill Snipes’ shoes.
“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 added.
“We believe these actions are malicious, we believe that the allegations that are set forth in the governor’s executive order are done for the purposes of embarrassing Dr. Snipes – embarrassing her and tarnishing her record, and we will be fighting this. In addition to that, Dr. Snipes herby rescinds her resignation that was set forth which would have been effective on the fourth of January,” Snipes’ attorney Burnadette Norris-Weeks said in a press conference, according to NBC Miami.
Norris-Weeks said that Snipes will “be fighting this to the very end,” and questioned Scott’s decision to put an “ally” in charge of elections in a Democratic stronghold.