FLFascism: Elections Official's Opponent Arrested

Friday, 14 November 2008, 4:49 pm
Opinion: Michael Collins

Video: Ellen Brodsky, long time election reform advocate was a candidate for Broward County Secretary of Elections. An employee of her opponent and winner in the Supervisor of Elections had Brodsky arrested for inquiring about a cancelled meeting.

Spotlight on the Banana Republic -- Broward County, Florida

By Joan Brunwasser
Election Integrity Editor
OpEdNews.Com

Introduction: Joan Brunwasser just provided this update on OpEdNews and sent it to USACOUP as well. Ellen Brodsky, a widely respected and well liked election reform advocate, was jailed today after seeking to attend a Broward County Canvassing Board meeting. A witness on the scene makes clear that all Brodsky did was ask about the meeting and inquire about a cancellation. Brodsky is the second election reform figure arrested while simply inquiring about the operations about their elections division. During the Missouri Primary, Phil Lindsay an election reform activist in Kansas City, Missouri was arrested for pointing out that a poll worker was incorrect in requesting a photographic identification prior to Lindsay exercising his franchise (they are not required in Missouri). He disagreed and he too was hauled of by the police. Lindsay and Brodsky have been high profile advocates for clean elections and critical of the operations of their elections officials. Broward County is home of the "butterfly ballot" in 2000, 100,000 missing votes in 2004, and an array of other problems, including 2008 delays, glitches and long lines. Welcome to the new fascism.

Michael Collins

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Joan Brunwasser:

A little while ago, I received this disturbing email from Susan Pynchon:

Ellen Brodsky was arrested today and taken away to the Broward County Jail. No one has heard from her and it's been over 3 hours since she was arrested. Following is an account of what happened as witnessed by Maida Genser, the woman who was with Ellen when she was arrested, re-printed below with Maida's permission.

Poor Ellen -- this is outrageous -- these people are out of control, and this sounds like an oppressive third world country.

Susan Pynchon

Florida Fair Elections Coalition

I called Maida to get permission to tell her story. She describes herself as a private citizen and member of the Broward Election Reform Coalition which Ellen founded. She is retired and happened to be with Ellen today. It's lucky for us. Otherwise, we would have only one side of this very disturbing story.

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From Maida Genser:

In case anyone reading this possibly does not know, Ellen was a candidate for Broward County Supervisor of Elections in the 2008 general election.

I went to be a witness today when Ellen went to observe the Canvassing Board meeting this afternoon at Broward County SOE. Predictably, they did not let her in and we (hopefully) got some good videotape of that.

We were told that the meeting was cancelled and that the Canvassing Board went home.

We had to argue to get them to let us up close enough to the building to see the official sign that was posted. The sign specifically said there was a meeting at 1 PM. We were there at approximately 1:15 PM. There was no posting of a cancellation.

Brenda Snipes, Supervisor of Elections, Broward. Did she dispatch the official who had Brodsky arrested?

The police were called (and all we were doing was asking questions). I do not know the name of the man who works high up for Dr. Brenda Snipes, Broward County SOE. Ellen can fill you in later. He was on the phone the whole time, and videotaping while we were videotaping. He kept saying to Ellen that she was not allowed to be there. Ellen had been at an earlier Canvassing Board meeting and asked some questions. The SOE (Secretary of Elections) is saying that she was abusive (kinda doubt that, but she didn’t have any witnesses). She was arrested for trespassing. They claim she refused to leave. I was there. She did no such thing. All she did was ask questions in a perfectly assertive manner. She never refused to leave. (I will probably have to go to court to testify on her behalf).

One more thing: I called her family and met her son to pick up her car because the deputy told me that her car would be towed if it was left overnight. By 3:30 PM, they were already getting ready to tow it away. We got there just in time.

Maida Genser

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Update:

As of 7:00 p.m. EST, Ellen still had not been processed. She will probably have to spend the night in jail.

Maida will keep us apprised of any news.

Originally published in OpEdNews.Com Nov 13, 2008

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