Suit Filed Over Missing Marijuana Question On Some Broward Ballots
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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - A complaint by a former Oakland Park commissioner and others over a missing item on their ballot has a prompted a lawsuit by an activist group who supports reforming marijuana laws.
Anne Sallee said when she received her mail-in ballot it was missing the question for Amendment 2 which asks voters if they support a state constitutional amendment which would allow medical marijuana. Sallee said her husband's ballot was also missing the question as were some of her friends.
Sallee said she took the ballots to the county's elections department office to show them the error.
Since different versions of the ballots are needed for different cities and parts of the county, multiple ballot layouts are created.
Supervisor of Elections Dr. Brenda Snipes told the Sun-Sentinel that she checked the specific ballot layout for Sallee's precinct and other mail-in ballots for the precinct and they were not missing the medical marijuana question.
Snipes later confirmed to CBS4's Joan Murray that two ballots from Oakland Park are missing the medical marijuana question. She said, in total, five to seven were wrong.
She concedes that there is no way to know, 100 percent, there aren't more that are missing the question.
Snipes blamed it on a test ballot that accidentally went out.
Snipes said she would check every returned ballot to make sure the medical marijuana issue was included in each ballot. She said if they find additional discrepancies, those voters will be notified and given a new ballot.
Ballot Breakdown: Pros, Cons Of Medical Marijuana In Florida
A Florida chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) have filed a lawsuit against Snipes and her office on Thursday.
Attorney Norman Kent, who represents NORML of Florida, said he had received four complaints like Sallee's that the marijuana question was missing from the ballot, according to the Sun-Sentinel. Kent does not just represent the group, he's also the national vice chairman of their board of directors.
NORML's suit wants Snipes' office to send out new ballots to all voters who have received vote-by-mail ballots and include information that explains that the Amendment 2 question may have been left off of their previous ballot.
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