November 14, 2018

Florida Recounts

The holidays are just around the corner. Now’s a GREAT time to forward us to friends and family, and not let politics ruin Thanksgiving dinner!

Washington Post

Controversy erupted after the election night leads of Republicans Ron Desantis and Rick Scott were substantially reduced following the counting of additional ballots in heavily Democratic Broward county.

Reuters

Mishaps, protests and litigation dominated Florida’s first day of recounting the vote for [the] pivotal races for governor and Senate.”

AP News

President Trump tweeted on Monday, “The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!”

Twitter

See past issues

From the Left

The left is frustrated that the GOP is claiming voter fraud without citing any evidence, but agrees that there are numerous problems with election administration that should be addressed.

“The Republicans’ posture on the recount — especially the party’s claims of fraud and cover-up and President Trump’s latest assertion on Monday of forgery... has been deeply divisive and even drew a stern rebuke Monday from the chief state judge in Broward County, Fla., Jack Tuter. He urged lawyers involved in the battle over the recount to ‘ramp down the rhetoric’ and take any accusations of electoral fraud to the police."

New York Times

“To be sure, there are valid points to be made about the lack of transparency and competency levels of certain county elections commissioners. For Republicans, just getting an estimate on how many ballots remain has been like pulling teeth. But there is no evidence of election fraud. Florida’s slowness in counting votes is hardly unique. A week after Election Day, key races in Arizona, California, Georgia, Maine, New York, Texas and Utah were yet to be called."

USA Today

It is no surprise that Democrats gain votes later in the counting process in part because big cities tend to contain lots of Democratic votes, and given their population, cities take much longer to count. This is why in Arizona Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema has overtaken Republican candidate Martha McSally as votes continue to be counted in Maricopa County and elsewhere...

“It is possible here for two things to be true at the same time: There’s no evidence of fraud in the counting of votes in Florida, and the incompetence of Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes is deeply troubling.”

Slate

“A 2012 investigation by the News21 journalism project looked at all kinds of voter fraud nationwide... It confirmed that voter impersonation was extremely rare, with just 10 credible cases...

"The other types of fraud weren’t common either: In total, the project uncovered 2,068 alleged election fraud cases from 2000 through part of 2012, covering a time span when more than 620 million votes were cast in national general elections alone. That represents about 0.000003 alleged cases of fraud for every vote cast.”

Vox

Some concede that “you can’t be surprised that Republicans, narrowly ahead in races for the governor’s office and the Senate, are mighty suspicious as their margins erode in the murky waters of the state’s most Democratic county. From the outside, incompetence and cheating aren’t always easy to distinguish from each other."

Washington Post

Others worry that “the Constitution says that the ultimate arbiter of who gets a Senate seat is the Senate itself — not election officials or the courts... If that were to happen... it is not unthinkable that Republicans would consider using their majority power in the Senate to refuse to seat Mr. Nelson and to give the seat to Mr. Scott instead."

New York Times

From the Right

The right argues that the irregularities in Broward county raise legitimate concerns about the integrity of the results, especially given the history of Brenda Snipes, its commissioner.

The right argues that the irregularities in Broward county raise legitimate concerns about the integrity of the results, especially given the history of Brenda Snipes, its commissioner.

“Scott went too far when he accused the Broward County supervisor of elections, Brenda Snipes, of attempting ‘to steal this election.’ But it's no exaggeration to say she has been breaking the law...

"Scott has been demanding [that officials comply with Florida law on ballot counting and transparency]... unlike the other 65 counties in the state, [Broward and Palm Beach counties] failed to meet state-mandated deadlines for counting ballots and reporting.”

Washington Examiner

Even more egregious, “that voting fraud that our Democratic friends insist never happens happens quite a lot under Snipes’s watch. She has [admitted that] disenfranchised felons and illegal aliens [were permitted] to vote; sent out mail-in ballots in which a proposed constitutional amendment was simply omitted [and] secretly opened ballots to thwart oversight."

National Review

“Last May, a judge ruled that Snipes violated federal and state election laws when she destroyed ballots... In August, a judge ordered Snipes to stop opening mail-in ballots in secret. Snipes has engaged in other behavior that has raised concerns about her competence and nonpartisanship, including again in 2016 when she ‘accidentally’ posted election results 30 minutes before polls closed."

Fox News

“Our media completely believe without evidence that Donald Trump engaged in a 30-year conspiracy with Russia to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton, but have complete confidence in an election supervisor who earlier this year was found by Florida courts to have illegally hidden and destroyed ballots."

The Federalist

Marco Rubio states, “The same people who are quick to use the term ‘Voter Suppression’ to describe everything from Voter ID to closing early voting sites on time, are also quick to condemn as hyperbole & baseless criticism of blatant & rampant election irregularities & violations of election laws."

Twitter

“The latest ballot debacle may be a result of carelessness or incompetence, rather than fraud. But election officials unable to do their job just invite abuse. A botched vote undermines confidence in American democracy... Election controversies hurt all Americans. Fixing the system should be a bipartisan priority."

Daily Caller

“Florida has given counties until 3 p.m. Thursday to finish the machine recount, and the state needs to insist on that deadline. The longer this stretches on, the more opportunity for mischief, and the less confidence voters will have in the integrity of Florida’s election."

Wall Street Journal

“It’s been eighteen years since Bush v Gore, and it seems as if Florida has changed everything about its elections except for the incompetence."

Hot Air

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