Barbara Sharief’s SD 35 campaign is handing out misleading ‘voter guides’ at Broward polling sites

Image via Florida Politics file.

An erroneous “Voter Guide” that the Broward Democratic Party replaced last month with an improved, but still problematic, version is still being distributed at county polling sites, courtesy of ex-Commissioner Barbara Sharief’s campaign.

Photos taken at a Miramar polling site this week show a Sharief campaign volunteer with the supposedly out-of-print guide, which features only Sharief as a candidate for Senate District 35. That’s despite the fact that Democrats Rodney Jacobs and Chad Klitzman are also running.

Their exclusion from the list, first reported by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, was supposedly addressed last month after party members alerted the media and contacted Florida Democratic Chair Nikki Fried’s office.

Broward Democratic Executive Committee (DEC) Chair Rick Hoye — who has endorsed Sharief, according to her campaign website — explained that the guide’s first draft had been approved by the party’s Campaign Committee.

Facing pressure, the party soon after produced an updated list in late July with Jacobs and Klitzman included. But as the Sun-Sentinel’s Steve Bousquet pointed out, the current version still has major problems, including the omission of several Democratic candidates and the inclusion of others who aren’t members of the party.

Perhaps most glaringly, the list doesn’t feature twice-elected Clerk Brenda Forman, the only Black woman in Broward who holds a countywide office. It does, however, include one of her two Primary challengers, Charles Frederick Hall.

Forman wasn’t on the version of the voter guide a Sharief volunteer was photographed with Tuesday at a Miramar polling site. Neither were Jacobs or Klitzman. Because Sharief’s campaign is still using the old version, which can’t be found on the Broward Democratic Party’s website, Facebook page, Instagram page or its seldomly updated X page.

Responding to an X post by WPLG Local 10 reporter Glenna Milberg that an “altered” version of the voter guide was being handed out, Sharief said it wasn’t altered and “is the original card that was given by the Democratic Party.”

That’s true, but it hasn’t been the correct and approved one for weeks.

According to Klitzman, the only place the outdated guide was ever published was on the Facebook page of the Pembroke Pines Democratic Club, which supports Sharief. The group has since taken the guide down, but has not posted the current version.

Speaking with Florida Politics from the Miramar polling place on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, Klitzman said he saw Sharief herself passing out the same misleading materials in Pembroke Pines earlier in the day. This was after she interacted with Milberg online.

“She’s knowingly disseminating false information,” he said. “This speaks to an integrity issue. Folks expect someone who’s running for office to be truthful, and this calls Barbara Sharief’s integrity into question.”