Judge Delays Decision On Missing Marijuana Question On Some Ballots
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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - An emergency hearing was held Tuesday morning over some Broward ballots which were missing the Amendment 2 question which deals with legalizing medical marijuana.
A pro-marijuana group filed suit after a handful of people claimed their mail-in ballots did not have the question listed on them.
Last Friday a Florida chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) filed a lawsuit against county Supervisor of Elections Dr. Brenda Snipes and her office over the missing question.
Snipes said looked into why some ballots were printed without the question and mailed to residents in Oakland Park. She said she believes it was an isolated case because they had to print a new ballot after someone dropped out of a race.
"It's our belief that a test ballot may have been left on the machine and got incorporated into the stack," said Dr. Snipes. "So if there were only five to seven of them then there's a possibility we'll see five more, there's a possibility no more test ballots were incorporated into this."
The initiative was on the ballot just two years ago but it fell short of passing, only receiving 58 percent of the vote instead of the 60 percent which was needed. Back then Broward County was one of the highest percentage of "yes" votes statewide.
NORML's suit wants a judge's order that the Snipes' office will do everything they can to make sure that the question is on every voter's ballot. NORML's suit also 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.
Snipes said so far every mail-in ballot that has been returned to her office has been checked to see if the question was there and so far it has been on every one. Anyone with an absentee ballot who thinks there might be a problem can go the Broward County Elections Headquarters in Lauderhill and staff will switch it out for a new one.
At the end of Tuesday's hearing, the judge did not make a ruling, instead she said she would get back to both parties, possible as early as Wednesday.
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