Suspended Oliphant may run for old job as Broward elections head

[Freddie Stubbs]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Suspended Broward County elections supervisor Miriam Oliphant picked up qualifying papers Thursday to run for her old job.

Oliphant also picked up papers for the county commission election. But she isn't saying if, or what, she's actually running for.

Gov. Jeb Bush suspended Oliphant, a Democrat, in November for neglect of duty, incompetence and misfeasance stemming from a botched 2002 gubernatorial primary. The Senate will have the final say on whether Oliphant's ouster stands.

Bush replaced Oliphant with retired school administrator Brenda Snipes, who has announced that she will run for the position. Two others, community activist Jamie Bloodworth and former Mayor Suellen Fardelmann of Cooper City, are also running in the Aug. 31 primary.

more: http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/politics/8658948.htm

[DavidFL]

1. This paragraph about sums it up...

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Justice for All in Broward, a group of local black ministers, want the U.S. Civil Rights Commission to investigate Bush's actions, saying Oliphant is a victim of racism.

Add to that Oliphant is also Democrat. But God forbid a White orange heiress and the White son of a wealthy and privleged political dynasty ever be prosecuted by the State of Florida for disenfranchising what could be up to 90,000+ Black, Latino and poor White voters.

[dryan]

2. Oliphant

In all fairness, I didn't know that the woman was an African-American until there was a photo of her in the Sentinel right after the first election fiasco. If she's incompetent, she's incompetent. I understand there is going to be some sort of hearing soon and she wants to call Jeb Bush.

[DavidFL]

3. I agree...if she violated the law she should be prosecuted...

but at the same time, I do not believe that the law should be selectively enforced against Oliphant when one major potential felon is sitting in the governor's mansion and another one has a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and whose district was gerrymandered for her. Would Oliphant be prosecuted had she been a White Democrat or a Black Republican? I don't know the answer to that. But given the current and historical treatment of Blacks and minorities in this State by this governor and the law enforcement mechanisms of the State, and the fact that Oliphant was singled out for prosecution, when I'm sure she's probably not the first civil servant to fail to perform her lawful duties, I have a hard time believing Jeb and Florida's good ol' boys are doing this because they believe in justice.

[dryan]

4. There should not be selective enforcement

I agree with that. But I have worked at many elections in Orange County. Our SOE is very strict about training. This is where I think that Oliphant might have a problem at her hearing. The law says that all precinct workers MUST have training within 30 days prior to the election. This means for each and every election. If you had training for a primary (for instance the one in March) and want to work at the general election in November, you have to have training again in October. I would think that this proviso would be especially critical since Broward was going to a new computer touchscreen machine. From what I have been told, (and this even comes from Democrats in Broward) the training was very cursory and was more of a rah rah session. The machines were not hooked up and took a long time to be activated.

There is also the question of why Ms. Oliphant discharged so many long-time employees and replaced them with people that had no experience in elections.

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. The change in personnel is no mystery

She was running a classic patronage operation. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it is when it interferes with efficient operation of the office.