Oliphant removed as Broward Elections Supervisor

Miami Sun Sentinel ^ | 11/20/2003 | BUDDY NEVINS

[Clintons Are White Trash]

FORT LAUDERDALE – Miriam Oliphant, the embattled Broward Elections Supervisor, was removed from office Thursday morning and the governor's office was expected to soon name a replacement.

[Clintons Are White Trash]

FORT LAUDERDALE – Miriam Oliphant, the embattled Broward Elections Supervisor, was removed from office Thursday morning and the governor's office was expected to soon name a replacement.

Shortly after 10 a.m., Oliphant was served with an executive order signed by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush removing her from office. It was served by Broward deputies at her main office at the Government Center.

She was reported in a meeting with her staff in her office at the Government Center and unavailable for comment after the announcement was made.

Locks were ordered replaced in her offices and deputies were expected to take up positions and secure the voting offices, equipment and records.

It's been a bad week for Oliphant.

Last Friday, three former employees filed a federal lawsuit against Oliphant, alleging she fired them last month because they helped expose mismanagement in her office. According to the suit, Oliphant tried to force employees to lie to prosecutors during the recent investigation of her office and threatened anyone who didn't do as told.

Also, Gov. Bush was pondering whether to remove Oliphant because of concern about her ability to oversee next year's elections. A state task force was to report to him this week on whether Oliphant has made major improvements in her office after an initial review concluded she was in gross dereliction of duty.

A report released Oct. 24 by Secretary of State Glenda Hood found Oliphant's office was poorly managed and unprepared to handle upcoming elections, calling it ``a very disjointed organization fraught with low morale and constant uncertainty.''

Oliphant had been told to either correct problems _ including several recent firings and poor communication _ or face removal or suspension.

Following the report's release, Oliphant said much of the criticism was unfounded, asserting that she had not violated any laws, procedures or ethical standards. She vowed not to resign.

Her supporters say she was targeted because she is black.

Recent firings and resignations have left 15 of the office's 69 positions vacant. The investigation found no apparent efforts to fill those spots.

The report also found that Oliphant had filed an operating plan with the state based on the same proposal submitted by Pasco County, cited the refusal of many poll workers to keep working on elections run by Oliphant and noted no poll worker training program was in place.

The assessment also found that hundreds of angry voters called recently because they had not received voter registration and information cards.

An audit issued a year ago found Oliphant overspent her budget by nearly $1 million. Bush declined to intervene at that point despite hundreds of e-mails pushing him to remove her.

The review was ordered by Bush to determine whether Broward is prepared for a special election in January. In addition, the 2004 election season includes a presidential primary in March, state and local primaries in August and the presidential election in November.

The problems in last year's gubernatorial primary received national attention because of the impact on the failed campaign of former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

Oliphant took charge after the 2000 Florida presidential election meltdown.

[DCBryan1]

Old Gaffer back home would have something to say about this.

[PeteFromMontana]

"Shortly after 10 a.m., Oliphant was served with an executive order signed by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush removing her from office. It was served by Broward deputies at her main office at the Government Center"




About time, and I love the way it was done to invoke maximum embarrassment to a national embarrassment

[DCBryan1]

as big as a house and as grey as a mouse

[EggsAckley]

Her supporters say she was targeted because she is black.

By doing so, these "supporters" prove that they believe blacks to be incompetent.

[CFC__VRWC]

Old Gaffer back home would have something to say about this.

The Rats and the NAACP will certainly have plenty to say about this. "It's part of the Bush Brothers' racist plan to steal the 2004 elections by disenfranchising all black voters in South Florida!"

Jeb's just walked right into a hornet's nest.

[Pikamax]

her supporters have been getting smaller and smaller as time has gone by. Only ones that were left were black preachers and even in that group there was a split.

[evets]

See ya!

[Arrowhead1952]

Her supporters say she was targeted because she is black.......

An audit issued a year ago found Oliphant overspent her budget by nearly $1 million.

I think the second sentence had much more to do with her getting the boot, that what her supporters are saying.

[clintonh8r]

The face of the Broward County DemocRATic Party...

[zygoat]

I'll bet Jesse Jacksons' on the way there now with his "rent a riot". This oughta be good!

[evets]

oliphant Broward's Oliphant expels Boy Scout for 'anti-gay' stance. Deeply held values between the Boy Scouts of America and the Broward County School Board collided on Tuesday as the board voted unanimously to evict the group from using public schools because of their ban on gay members. "Miriam Oliphant and this board do not discriminate and everybody has to be put on notice that we will not tolerate discrimination," Oliphant said in her last meeting on the board.

[Joe Brower]

ABOUT DAMNED TIME!

[Tacis]

I hope this does not mean that all her friends, relatives, high school buddies that she put on the public payroll will also lose their jobs or have to come in to the office ever. What about all the contratcs she granted? Are those still enforcable? Do the vendors still have to pay her or the folks she designated to receive cash from the contracts?

[evets]

not a "happy camper"

[Mad Dawgg]

Buh-Bye

[Tijeras_Slim]

I'd say Jeb gave her enough rope.

[beckett]

You could knock me over with a feather right now. Boy, Jeb has got some guts. I didn't think he would take on this particular political brawl because Oliphant has some very vicious supporters who are likely to use every devious race-baiting trick in the book to make Jeb look bad.

Here's a link to a PDF file of Glenda Hood's letter to Jeb recommending Oliphant's removal, and also a copy of Jeb's Executive Order:

PDF file, 13 pages

[The Other Harry]

I wonder whether she is still getting paid.

[Joe Boucher]

Ms. Oliphant is and has been an embarassment since she came to power. She is a pathetic quota queen that only lasted in her position as long as she did because she is black.
ABOUT TIME.