The fate of Florida’s U.S. Senate and governor races hangs in the balance as a statewide machine recount has been ordered by the Secretary of State Ken Detzner. The recount will include the races for senator, governor, and commissioner of agriculture, which all fell within the narrow margin that automatically triggers a recount.
But while some may see this as a routine procedure to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the election, others have raised serious concerns about the possibility of fraud and manipulation by Democratic officials in two key counties: Broward and Palm Beach.
Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott, who is currently leading incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by 15,000 votes, has accused Nelson of trying to “steal” the election by producing ballots out of thin air until he has enough to win. Scott has filed lawsuits against Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes and Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher, alleging that they are withholding information and violating state law by failing to report the number of ballots cast and counted on time.
Scott has also received support from President Trump, who tweeted that “Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!”
Nelson, on the other hand, has claimed that Scott is “abusing the full force of his public office as governor to stop a complete and accurate counting of all the votes in Florida”. Nelson has filed his own lawsuit, asking that the deadline for local election officials to file preliminary unofficial vote totals to the state be extended past noon Saturday.
Meanwhile, in the governor’s race, Republican Ron DeSantis is ahead of Democrat Andrew Gillum by 33,684 votes. Gillum, who initially conceded on election night, has since retracted his concession and called for every vote to be counted. He said he was “replacing my earlier concession with an unapologetic and uncompromised call to count every vote” in a tweet on Saturday. How is that even a thing? How can you resign from a race, and then decide that you changed your mind and so should be allowed to be in it still? Imagine that in something like chess where opponents resign frequently and then to go home and study the position only to realize that you had a winning position. Could you then go back and say that you take back your resignation and want to play out the game? No, of course not. That’s ridiculous.
Broward County is at the center of the controversy in part because nearly 25,000 more votes were cast for governor than for the Senate, a discrepancy larger than the current margin between Nelson and Scott. This raises questions about whether some voters skipped the Senate race or whether some ballots were not scanned properly.
Broward County has a history of election problems, dating back to the infamous 2000 presidential recount that was decided by the Supreme Court in favor of George W. Bush over Al Gore. Snipes, who has been in charge of Broward’s elections since 2003, has faced criticism and lawsuits for her handling of previous elections, including destroying ballots in a 2016 congressional primary and opening mail-in ballots before they were verified in 2016 general election.
As Florida braces for another round of uncertainty and drama, many voters are wondering whether their voices will be heard or silenced by partisan interests. Is this a battle for democracy or a coup by Democrats? The answer may depend on who you ask.
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