Medical Cannabis Initiative Missing from Voter’s Ballot in Broward County, Florida
A scanned copy of Sallee’s ballot, which she sent to the Sun Sentinel.
Amendment 2, which would legalize medical cannabis, is one of several ballot initiatives being voted on this election in Florida. Although the election isn’t until November 8th, early voting is already underway, and at least one voter – former Oakland Park Commissioner Anne Sallee – has come forward with images of her ballot that show Amendment 2 completely missing.
Sallee, now Broward chapter director of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, told the Sun Sentinel she spent a week unsuccessfully trying to get someone at the Broward elections office to pay attention to her complaint, only to be told that she’s “mistaken”. To prove her claim, Sallee sent a scanned image of her ballot, which clearly shows the ballot go from Amendment 1, straight to Amendment 3.
Broward Elections Supervisor Dr. Brenda Snipes said yesterday that her technical staff has investigated, and found no evidence of faulty ballots being sent to voters.
“We have a check-and-balance system”, Snipes told the Sentinel, noting that she hadn’t seen Sallee’s ballot so couldn’t comment on it specifically. “We can go back and see what we did send to the printer… When you’re dealing with this much paper and this many people, we may have made a mistake.” Snipes said her office sent Sallee a new ballot with Amendment 2 included.
According to the Sentinel, Snipes was “cleared Wednesday in another election snafu, the early posting of primary election results. Her office also was criticized for sending out inaccurate voter ID cards, and for printing ballots for November that include the word “no” in the “yes” line on the county’s transportation sales surtax question.”
Late last year lawmakers in Broward County unanimously passed an ordinance to establish a ticket for the possession of up to 20 grams of cannabis, rather than a mandatory criminal charge as the law called for previously.