Gov. Jeb Bush's removal Thursday of Broward County's incompetent elections chief starts the process of restoring public faith in one of nation's largest voting jurisdictions. Miriam Oliphant was unfit for office. She failed repeatedly, after several opportunities, to show she could conduct valid elections and instill confidence in the electoral process.
Few acts of mismanagement rise to the level where a governor should intercede and remove an official who was democratically elected. But Bush served a compelling public interest in removing Oliphant. Her bungling of last's year's gubernatorial primary, when some polling places opened late and closed early, disenfranchised hordes of disgusted voters. She gave voters the wrong ballots, overspent her budget, fired experienced staff and brushed aside offers of assistance. Worse, Oliphant never learned from the fiascos she caused.
Bush suspended Oliphant after a followup report by the secretary of state into whether the supervisor had turned around her office. Last month, an assessment team of elections' officials reported how Broward voters were harmed by Oliphant's dereliction of duty. Oliphant failed to replace fired staff members, had no training programs for poll workers in place and failed to keep accurate her working list of the county's registered voters. Authorities were rightly worried about whether she could pull off next year's presidential elections. As the investigative report noted: "The complete lack of direction and supervision is the driving force behind staffs' inability to perform vital election preparation tasks."
Bush deserves credit for acting after first giving Oliphant a reasonable chance to clean up her act. The secretary of state should work with Brenda Snipes, a former educator whom Bush appointed to take over, to get the office functional. Rebuilding the office's credibility will take months, and that process must begin now if Broward is to be adequately prepared to handle next year's elections.
