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FLORIDA IS ONCE again at the centre of election controversy, but this year there are no hanging chads or butterfly ballots like in 2000. And no angry mobs in suits – at least not yet.
The “purple” state will learn tomorrow whether there will be recounts in the bitter and tight US Senate race between Republican Governor Rick Scott and incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson; and in the governor’s race between former Republican US Republican Ron DeSantis and the Democratic mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum.
The state’s recount procedures have been revised since Florida held the country hostage for a month 18 years ago, when George W Bush edged Al Gore for the presidency. Among other things, the infamous punch-card ballots are no longer.
Yet, Scott and President Donald Trump alleged fraud without evidence, even as the often-laborious process of reviewing ballots in a close race continued ahead of tomorrow’s noon deadline. Both Scott and Nelson sought to get the courts to intervene.
Scott said “unethical liberals” were trying to steal the election in Democratic strongholds of Broward and Palm Beach County.
He suggested something was awry because vote-counters were taking longer there than in other jurisdictions, and his thin lead has kept narrowing since Election Night. Today, he led by 0.21 percentage point, low enough to require a recount.
Nelson lawyer Marc Elias said Scott was using his official position to try to influence the election.
“He himself said that as ballots are being counted, it is tightening. Then he made some veiled threat or suggestion that he was somehow going to involve law enforcement,” Elias said.
This is not a third world dictatorship. We do not let people seize ballots when they think they’re losing.
A recount is mandatory if the winning candidate’s margin is less than 0.5 percentage points when the first unofficial count is verified Saturday by Florida’s secretary of state. And if the margin is less than 0.25%, the recount must be done by hand.
In Washington, Trump took Scott’s side, telling reporters that the federal government could get involved and adding: “all of the sudden they are finding votes out of nowhere”.
“What’s going on in Florida is a disgrace,” he said.
While the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said there had been no allegations of fraud, Scott asked – but did not order – the agency to investigate the counties’ elections departments. A spokeswoman for the agency said there were no credible allegations of fraud, therefore no active investigation.
The governor, meanwhile, filed lawsuits in both counties seeking more information on how their ballots were being tallied. Nelson filed his own federal lawsuit, seeking to postpone tomorrow’s deadline to submit unofficial election results.
A judge today sided with Scott and ordered Broward County’s election supervisor to release the voter information sought by the governor by 7pm.
The ruling came as the Broward Canvassing Board met to review ballots that had been initially deemed ineligible. Lawyers from the campaigns, journalists and citizens crowded into a room to observe the proceedings.
The county has not answered questions about its process and about how many votes it has left to count.
Broward County has a troubled election history, Its county’s election supervisor, Brenda Snipes, has been at the centre of several controversies, including one 2016 case in which her office destroyed physical ballots but kept digital copies. A judge ruled that the law had been violated.
In Riviera Beach, the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board met this morning to review “anomalous” ballots not yet counted because of irregularities that prevented a machine-reading. Those included instances where a voter might have over-voted, trying to cross out a choice and indicating a preferred one with an arrow.
In the race for governor, DeSantis was leading by 0.47 percentage points. While that margin, if it holds, would require a recount, DeSantis has mostly stayed out of the fray, saying he was working on plans for taking office in January.
Gillum conceded on Election Night, but as the vote margin began to narrow, he said he wanted to see every vote counted, strongly indicating he would not stand in the way of a recount.
A third state-wide race that could go to a recount – the agriculture commissioner race between Democrat Nikki Fried and Republican Matt Caldwell – is the tightest of all, with Fried holding a 483-vote lead – a margin of 0.006%.
In 2000, Broward and Palm Beach each played central roles in the Bush-Gore race.
At the time, both counties used punch card ballots – voters poked out chads, leaving tiny holes in their ballots representing their candidates. Some didn’t press hard enough, leaving hanging or dimpled chads that had to be examined by hand, a long and tiresome process.
Palm Beach also was home to the infamous “butterfly ballot” that many Democrats believe cost Gore the election. An election official’s attempt to make the candidate’s names bigger and easier to read for senior citizens resulted in them being listed in two columns instead of one. Analysts later said the new redesign may have confused voters and probably cost Gore votes.
As for the angry mobs in suits: In late November 2000, Republican operatives in suits stormed the Miami-Dade canvassing board’s meeting, causing the members to permanently stop their recount, even after police officers restored order. The melee became known as “The Brooks Brothers Riot”.
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A sham president from a sham democracy.
@Paul G: A sham president created by a sham democracy alright. They say empires crumble from within.
@Paul G: yup, sham democracy, owned and paid for by powerful forces in the media, gun, military industrial complex, big oil industries etc. The latest incarnation of the leader is the equally the craziest, most dangerous but cleverest yet. Trump is no fool, he knows exactly what he is doing.
‘drain the swamp’, don’t make me laugh.
I have a funny feeling the first result willl end up being the same as the final result but the Democrats will put out the urban legend about how democracy was thwarted. In other words they don’t believe in any democratic process that doesn’t support their viewpoint. At some stage they will blame the Russians but at the end of the day, the entire campaign across the US resulted in no reduction in military spending or the USAs plan to start new wars or fund on going ones. Two cheeks of the same …
@Cal Mooney: you’re literally explaining how republicans approach elections and spinning it 180degrees.
@David Linehan: You missed the point completely. OBama murdered 4 times more civilians by drone bombing than Bush (who is acknowledged as a war monger). Everything going on in Florida makes no difference to the civilians who will be murdered by Trump or anyone else who takes over. I beg you to differ.
@Cal Mooney: indeed, the rabble is entertained while the legions (oil) plunder.
@Cal Mooney: It seems to be even more complicated. Tim Cavona, formally Democrat who ran as an Independent (progressive Democrat) against Debbie W Schultz (was running the DNC when Bernie Sanders was shafted) has cried foul and has released footage of supposed ballot boxes being removed.
Thousands of votes have been ‘found’ since polling day which is very strange, I would give all the candidates themselves the benefit of the doubt unless proved otherwise but it seems the officials in charge in Florida have some serious questions to answer as to how they run their stations when it is so open to dispute.
@David Linehan: the delusion is real.. stay objective.
@Cal Mooney:’Two cheeks of the same’ <- you're looking at it from an outsiders point of view( the war machine i don't disagree with you)..but for the people that live in the U.S. there is a huge difference between voting Republican and Democratic…healthcare being just one of them…
@Cal Mooney: Where are you getting your figures? While Obama certainly carried out more extra judicial murders with drones there’s absolutely no way Obama’s drone death toll comes close to the death toll under Bush’s watch.
The election is fraud , Democrats at their dirty tricks.
@Michael Maher: Not at all. A red state, no different then Jeb looking after his sibling all those years ago….or was that OK for you?
I love how the president of America says counting votes is an embarrassment to democracy and nobody bat’s an eyelid
America, home of voter suppression, gerrymandering and legalised political bribery.
@Carlin Ite: not s bastion of democracy like Ireland
@Ronan Gallagher: as someone foreign said to me yesterday. Isn’t Ireland a ‘masonocracy’. I didn’t think it was a real word, but I instantly recognized the intended meaning.
@Greg Blake: stop talking to strangers
@Ronan Gallagher: we are toxic here but not nearly as bad as the yanks
Let’s be honest. Trump is an ahole,!
@JC: your the uneducated ass hole
@pearse: You’re
can’t be overturned now paddy power’s have already paid out
@Geoff Murphy: you might have to pay paddy back
Florida will have over a million new voters next time out. Let’s hope they don’t hold a grudge against the republicans that have until now denied them that right
have your say