Lieberman disagrees.

“If they weren’t lost,’’ she said, “then why weren’t they in the original count?’’

Lieberman said she has requested taped recordings of previous canvassing board meetings, and other documents, and that she intends to press Snipes for an explanation at Friday’s meeting.

Broward Mayor John Rodstrom declined to blame Snipes for long voter lines and delays on Election Day, but said that he, too, has yet to hear an acceptable explanation for the discovery of additional ballots days after the polls closed.

“It boggles the mind that even one ballot could be misplaced,’’ he said. “What happens if they hadn’t found those?’’

Officials at the state level also have taken an interest in Broward’s prolonged ballot count.

Snipes spoke with Florida’s acting division of elections director, John Boynton, on Wednesday.

“She said the ballots were in her warehouse but she did not describe anything as not being customary,” Chris Cate, state elections spokesman, told The Miami Herald on Thursday.

“She also described it that the ballots were found as a customary practice of back-checking. Our immediate concern is to make sure votes are counted accurately, and we did get that assurance from the Broward County supervisor as far as her procedures and why ballots may be counted at different times. That is something that we definitely intend to bring up as an issue.”

Also Thursday, State. Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, announced that she will form a Broward County Election Task Force to look at problems that occurred during the November election.

“I am forming this task force not to point fingers at anyone, but to find solutions, real solutions that Broward and Florida desperately need,” said Sobel in a news release.

When asked about Snipes’ performance, Sobel said some problems were not Snipes’ fault — such as the lengthy ballot and the decision by Republicans to reduce early voting days.

But, Sobel said, “I don’t like the idea they are still counting after the election for several days. I don’t like that ballots were found in a room, but at least they were found.”