Judge Robert W. Lee, who witnessed history and played a key role in the 2000 presidential election, is retiring after almost three decades on the bench.
“I have been a judge for 27 years,” Lee said when he sat down with NBC6 to talk about his career in and out of the courtroom.
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“Some folks may remember the trapeze sex club cases,” Lee recalled one of the many cases he has been assigned.
Lee is retiring at the end of the year. Professionally, the list of accomplishments is lengthy. It includes presiding in more than 300 jury trials, but he gained national and international notoriety as the county judge was assigned to Broward’s canvassing board during the historic election between Al Gore and George W. Bush.
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As he packed his office, he set aside a special box filled with memorabilia that can easily end up in Washington’s Smithsonian history museum.
There is an album filled with newspaper articles.
“And these people would send me this from all over the country,” Lee said, as he flipped through the neatly organized album of clippings.
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In a plastic bag that is tightly sealed, he stores the pens that still bear the name of Jane Carroll, who was Broward’s election supervisor at the time.
Lee even pulled out business cards from all types of people, including NBC6 reporter Ari Odzer, who was covering the biggest story in the country at that time.
But the sample punch card ballots are probably the most treasured of the possessions in Lee’s collection.
“They were never used,” Lee jokes when he showed the sample ballots.
Using a gadget of that time, he tried to explain how the punch ballots was supposed to work and how it wasn’t a perfect voting method.
Suddenly, we’re back on election night in 2000 and the subsequent fallout from that election.
“That first night there was no indication that it was anything other than a regular night,” Lee said.
But the following days, it became evident Florida was too close to call and the state came into the national spotlight.
The vote was so close, a recount was required in places like Broward County.
“That’s where the whole fight started,” he said.
And then the world learned about punch card ballot chads, hanging chads and dimpled chads.
“It was not easy, there were death threats and that’s true. There were lots of hate mail. That’s true,” Lee admits of his role as the then chair of Broward’s canvassing board.
The electoral fight came down to 537 votes and Florida’s 25 electoral votes.
And Broward’s recount process took a month.
Lee recalled the tough days.
“I could not go to a store, a restaurant without having someone often very nice, sometimes very nasty. I was accosted twice in a very bad way,” he remembers.
The security concerns were so serious Lee had personal security with him all day while the process unfolded.
He even recalls threats regarding his political future.
“As it turned out, neither side ran anyone against me. I kept my seat,” he said with a smile.
They’re all memories now.
Lee had a front-row seat to American history.
As we get close to another contentious election, the country has seen political harassment of poll workers, candidates who have questions election integrity and results.
But Lee remains optimistic.
“Yes, there are people who are going to be upset,” Lee said.
But he added: “We have enough systems in place that it’s going to be fine…those out there that try to say that it’s not without any basis will be held to account because they are the ones who should be held to account.”
