Outgoing Florida elections official Brenda Snipes certainly won’t be suffering financially after resigning amid controversial botched vote counts in the November 6 elections.
The Broward County elections supervisor will reportedly be raking in almost $11,000 a month in pension benefits come January, the Sun Sentinel reported.
BPR reports:
The 75-year-old Democrat will be collecting $58,560 a year from her earlier career as an educator, and the state will be doling out an additional $71,000 a year for Snipes’ time as the Broward County Supervisor of Elections.
Snipes will be receiving the generous pension benefits even as she resigns amid backlash over Broward’s handling of ballots for the Nov. 6 election, especially affecting the U.S. Senate race between Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
With missing ballots, questionable processing of provisional ballots and an allegedly deliberate missing of a recount deadline by two minutes, along with Snipes’ previous history of illegally destroying voter ballots in a 2016 Democratic primary, many called for her to step down or be fired.
“It really raises the question, on top of everything else, why she’s being excessively compensated for doing a poor job. That’s the added insult to injury,” Dominic Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch, said, according to the Sun Sentinel.
“It just leaves additional salt in the wound,” he added.
Snipes continued to collect her $4,880 a month stemming from her time as a teacher and school administrator even as she worked at her $178,865-a-year job to which she was appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003. She was re-elected to that office four times.
According to the Sun Sentinel:
Based on salary information and state retirement rules, the South Florida Sun Sentinel determined Snipes, 75, stands to add another $5,909 a month for her 15 years as supervisor, roughly $71,000 a year. State officials said they could not provide information on Snipes’ new pension because they had not calculated it and would not do so until requested by Snipes.
Snipes has not responded to emails requesting comment about her pensions. Eugene Pettis, an attorney who represented Snipes during the recent recounts, declined to comment.
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