Judicial candidate seeks $65,000 in sanctions against elections supervisor
Daily Business Review. June 15, 2009. by Jordana Mishory
Posted at http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/news.html?news_id=55634

Polling places around Broward County lacked notices announcing Mardi Levey Cohen was a candidate for a judicial race where her name was missing from the ballot, witnesses called by Cohen testified Monday as a contempt hearing opened on her sanctions request.

Cohen wants to recover $65,000 in campaign spending, legal costs and other expenses from the county elections office for her losing campaign to replace Circuit Judge Pedro Dijols, who finished third in a primary. Bernie Bober won in the race where votes for Dijols were counted for Cohen.

Burnadette Norris-Weeks, attorney for Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, said in opening statements that “the supervisor’s office went far beyond the requirements.”

Cohen’s attorney said he plans to call 35 witnesses — including two county court judges and a general magistrate — during the two-day hearing.

A judge tossed Cohen from the ballot for running under her maiden name, but the 4th District Court of Appeal restored her to the race and ruled Snipes could post notices if her name couldn’t be on the ballot. Snipes had started printing ballots and left the Bober-Dijols lineup in place.

Senior Miami-Dade Judge Richard Yale Feder heard the initial dispute and is weighing the sanctions request.

Norris-Weeks said Snipes’ office followed the 4th DCA order by posting notices in voting booths and sample ballots. E-mails were sent to recipients of overseas ballots. The Fort Lauderdale solo practitioner said poll workers received extra training so they were aware of the notices.

Lewis Levey, Cohen’s attorney and brother, told Feder that case law states intent is not an issue when an order is clear. He said the 4th DCA decision stated a notice to voters may be necessary.

“The question is whether these notices were properly posted,” said Levey of Levey Filler Rodriguez Kelso & De Bianchi in Miami .

Norris-Weeks said she was “not sure what counsel is talking about with regard to his understanding of the law.”

Witnesses called by Cohen maintained notices were scarce or altogether absent.

Broward County Court Judge Terri-Ann Miller, who got to know Cohen when both ran for the bench in 2006, said her Hollywood precinct did not contain a single yellow notice. She said she asked a poll worker where the notices were, but the worker didn’t know anything about it.

“I didn’t see one in any of the booths, and I was looking for them,” Miller said.

Norris-Weeks asked Miller if she believed Snipes willfully did not post notices.

“I think it was gross negligence if you would ask me,” Miller responded.

Broward County Judge Lee Jay Seidman testified he saw two notices — but only after he voted. He contended one was high on a wall that was hard to see, and none was in his booth. He also mentioned the lack of notices to precinct workers.

Attorney Bill Gelin, who runs the courthouse blog JAABlog, testified he saw only one notice, which defeated his plan to take an extra one and post it on the blog.

Randi Kramarz, a friend of Cohen, said she told the candidate after voting that she saw no notices.

Norris-Weeks intends to call election office employees and poll workers to testify the notices were up. She asked one of Cohen’s witnesses if he was aware seniors sometimes pull down notices so they can read them better.

Cohen wants to recover the money she spent on her campaign, the state election filing fee and attorney fees for the appeal.

Cohen is running in a 2010 judicial race — her third consecutive attempt to get onto the Broward bench. Her husband is Circuit Judge Dale Cohen.

In a related case, Snipes is asking a Tallahassee judge to halt an investigation by the Florida Elections Commission into whether her office acted properly in the Cohen race. Snipes maintains the commission lacks the authority to investigate her office.

Jordana Mishory can be reached at (954) 468-2616.