By Donna Westfall – December 2, 2018 – As we watched the Broward County, Florida, election official resign and then get suspended by out going Governor and Senator elect, Rick Scott, let’s wonder if voter fraud can happen in our county?
What happened in Florida? The Supervisor of Elections, Brenda Snipes, was appointed to the position in 2003 by Jeb Bush and was elected 4 subsequent times. She resigned on November 18th citing wanting to spend more time with her family. Then Gov. Scott suspended her and put Peter Antonacci into the position temporarily to fill the position until the next election in 2020. Earlier this afternoon, Snipes decided to fight back and rescinded her resignation.
As the elections supervisor she made $178,865 a year. She could lose her $71,000 a year pension.
At issue, 2,000 misplaced votes during the mandated hand statewide recount period. Under her watch, irregular ballots were mixed with valid ones, along with missing a deadline by two minutes. Previously, she was accused of destroying votes and publishing results too early.
Del Norte County has 18 precincts. Our County Registrar of Voters is Alissia Northrup, responsible for 14,289 registered voters based on the November 6, 2018 election. Interesting to note that just shy of 50% actually voted or 7,127. Her pay including benefits for 2017 was $121,274.50. If you have a question, you can call, walk-in, phone or email her and she responds promptly. She tires extremely hard to keep the voter roles current and correct.
Since it’s a small town, she know a good deal of the voters by name. She takes her job very seriously and may have added a few grey hairs due to the stress with each election. If you happen to have any issues about your vote or anyone else’s ballot such as someone died, but their ballot was mailed to your home; simply go to the County Clerk’s office and let them know. They take pride in keeping lists current.
When my son moved to Oregon about ten years ago now, we continued to get voters guides from the clerk’s office addressed to him and still get jury summons even though the court and the county clerk have been notified multiple times that he is no longer a resident of California and hasn’t been for years. For some time his name was still on the voter rolls at his polling place. I haven’t checked recently and have given up trying to get the court to stop sending jury summons. I suppose he could have voted in both California and Oregon for a period of time, but he isn’t inclined. I would say that voter fraud most certainly could take place even in Del Notre County.