MIAMI - Florida's Commission on Ethics has dismissed charges that Broward County Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant violated ethics by employing her mother as a poll worker, renting a house to an employee and misusing public funds.
The commission voted Thursday to dismiss eight charges contained in three complaints against Oliphant, who has been criticized after a botched election in the county last year and complaints from county commissioners that she has mismanaged her budget.
Ethics Commission advocate Virlindia Doss told the group there was no probable cause to believe that Oliphant broke the law.
The report cited one charge - nepotism surrounding the hiring of Oliphant's mother as a poll worker - that would have warranted probable cause for further investigation. But Doss said Oliphant was not directly involved with hiring her mother, Hattie McKinzie, as a poll worker in Tamarac last year.
