UNITED STATES—Florida Election Supervisor of Broward County, Brenda Snipes resigned Sunday, November 18, hours after Florida’s election recount deadline. Her resignation is expected to go into effect on January 2, 2019. Governor Elect, Ron DeSantis will have to fill the vacate seat left by Snipes departure.

“I think I have served the purpose that I came here for, which was to provide a credible election product for our voters” said Snipes during a press conference.

Three of Florida’s statewide elections for Governor, U.S. Senate, and Commissioner of Agriculture were undecided as a final recount was underway to determine the result.

Snipes continued hold her position as Elections Supervisor for Broward County after repeated violations during her tenure including 1,000 uncounted ballots in 2012, illegally destroying 6,000 ballots that were court ordered to be preserved in 2016,
and posting the results of the 2016 election to the office website before the polls closed in 2016.

Florida’s recount reached its deadline with 52 minutes left. Republican Governor Rick Scott defeated Democrat Bill Nelson to become the next U.S. Senator of Florida. Nelson conceded Sunday, November 18 after the manual recount showed Scott in the lead by 10,033 votes.

Scott will join Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate on January 3, 2019. This is the first time since the Reconstruction Era that Florida has had two Republican Senators. Mayor Andrew Gillum conceded Saturday, November 17 after a machine recount showed DeSantis ahead by 32,463 votes.

“The only thing better than being elected Governor of Florida is being elected twice in two weeks. Obviously we are going to have to address some of the problems of the election administration in places like Broward and Palm Beach County. I think it is good that Brenda Snipes has submitted her resignation. There was no way as Governor that I was gonna let her preside over another election down there after all the problems they had down there. So, we had 65 counties that did a good job. We had two that dropped the ball. We want to make sure that all 67 counties do these elections in a fair way,” said DeSantis to Fox News.

“Now the campaign is truly behind us, and that’s where we leave it. We must do what Americans have always done: come together for the good of our state and our country. My focus will not be looking backward, but on doing exactly what I ran on: Making Washington Work,” said DeSantis.

President Trump congratulated Scott on his election victory and a “courageous and successful campaign.”