State elections chief: Broward mishap 'unacceptable'

By DARA KAM
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, August 30, 2016 .......... Broward County is known for being among the last of Florida's 67 counties to publish its election results after polls close, but on Tuesday, the county was in the spotlight for the opposite reason.

The county's supervisor of elections website posted preliminary results online nearly half-an-hour before the polls closed at 7 p.m.

Secretary of State Ken Detzner told reporters Tuesday evening he had referred the matter to the Broward County state attorney and sheriff. Under Florida law, releasing election results before the polls close is a third-degree felony.

"It is a violation, and it's unacceptable for the results to be posted prior to the polls closing," Detzner said.

When asked if the Broward elections office could be fined, Detzner said, "It's a little more serious than that."

The preliminary election results were posted on the Broward elections website around 6:40 p.m., but were later removed.

"Due to a technical error in our website provider, VR systems, postings were published early and delayed," the Broward elections office, headed by Supervisor Brenda Snipes, said in a post on Facebook. Snipes, appointed to the post by former Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003, easily won re-election Tuesday night.

The early posting of the election results was inadvertent, the Sun Sentinel reported Tuesday evening. According to the report, an employee of VR Systems Inc., which provides the county's elections software, accidentally posted a link to the early results online.

"A staff member of ours inadvertently created a link that was a preview of the election results that were not intended to be public," VR Systems CEO Mindy Perkins told the Sun Sentinel.

The Broward mishap was apparently one of few elections issues across the state, according to Detzner.

"It's been a very smooth and overall very successful election day here in Florida," he told reporters. "No election's ever perfect. The secret is to be able to respond to any problem that might occur … and I'm proud that the supervisors were able to do that."

County canvassing boards have until Sept. 6 to submit official election results to the Department of State. The state Elections Canvassing Commission will certify the results on Sept. 8.