Trump.45 is at it again. On his way to the helicopter this morning, he is spinning the usual mix of misinformation about counting votes, in a loud voice.
Remember this simple Rule of Human Behavior:
The Fraudster Always Yells Foul First
In this case we refer to Trump.45 as the titular head of Republicans everywhere.
Some Simple Facts About the 2018 Florida Vote
A few simple items of fact:
In Florida, all counties are still counting absentee, mail in Military, and provisional votes in order to arrive at final certified counts which, BY LAW, are not due yet. All counties. Not Broward and Palm Beach only. The official reporting date for Florida Vote Counts is Saturday, November 10 at 12 PM. Trump is wrong. Surprise, surprise!!
It is ironic that Military mail in votes are among those Trump.45 is questioning now. So much for his support of our brave serving men and women abroad who want to take advantage of their basic constitutional rights. Trump.45’s behavior is hypocritical, disrespectful to Veterans, and Un-American.
Second, Florida has had a Republican governor for more than 20 years (since 1998) and has a solidly Republican state House (R73-D47) and Senate (R23-D17) in place.* The state regulations about voting procedures, counts, and recount provisions are those written by Republicans. 100 per cent of this rests on their collective Red Shoulders. So, if there are any problems or procedural irregularities, Trump.45’s minions are directly and fully responsible. Oops. Again, we have more misleading untruthfulness (BS) straight from the top.
Third, BY LAW, there are plainly established, codified recount provisions for Florida elections (in place for more than 10 years).** There is a mandatory automatic machine recount if the margin between two candidates is less than 0.5%. And there is an automatic manual (more extensive) recount of all ballots if the victory margin is less than 0.25% after a machine recount. Those are Republican passed laws. You made it; you own it, Baby.
Already the Senate margin is less than 0.25%, so there will be an automatic (required by Florida law) manual recount in the Nelson-Scott race (margin 0.18%).*** The current margin in the Governor’s race is less than 0.5%, so there will be an automatic machine recount of all ballots in the Gillum-DeSantis contest (0.44%).
To be complete, there is a third statewide race in Florida that will trigger an automatic recount in 2018. From the National Public Radio report:
Though it is garnering less attention, the state’s race for the commissioner of Agriculture between Republican Matt Caldwell and Democrat Nicole Fried is in a dead heat. This is the closest statewide race, where each candidate has received a share of roughly 50 percent of the votes. Fried pulled ahead of Caldwell, but the candidates were separated by fewer than 3,000 as of Friday morning.
This puts them at under a 0.04 percent difference, making a manual recount order on Saturday almost certain.
Adding remaining votes from Broward, Palm Beach, and the rest of Florida’s 67 counties will not affect the triggering of recounts under existing law. They will happen. The Republicans wrote the laws, put the procedures in place, and just don’t want to follow the established rules (for which they completely earn either blame or praise. How droll!). So now Rick Scott doesn’t like his own election rules. Hogwash!
Furthermore, the public official directly responsible for all Florida election procedures and counts is Republican Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner, in office since 2012.**** Detzner was appointed to that office by none other than Rick Scott. Gimme a break, fellas!
Scott gave a quite Trumpian-like press statement performance last night, waxing terrible about fraud, not standing by, and threatening law enforcement activity to preserve Florida’s votes. The essential problem is that he is now, and has been for the last eight years, in charge of Florida’s voting landscape. His potential action is the functional equivalent of a Man suing his Own Left Foot in Court for non-performance. It would be farcical, if we did not now live in a World of Alternate Facts stoked by Trump.45.
Fourth, Trump.45 has been beating the dead horse of Election Voter Fraud for three years with not an ounce of evidence to prove his wild and bizarre conspiracy theories. In fact, he wasted several million U.S Taxpayer Dollars on an utterly pointless and useless Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity(2017-2018) chaired by Kris Kobach which discovered not a shred of credible evidence or proof of significant irregularities. Actually the whole affair was such a wipe out disaster, the entire Commission was disbanded and wimpered out of existence with no report, not even a “Why We Failed” summary document. After Kobach and his boys got sued in Federal Court and jointly headed for the exits. Good Riddance.
Kobach Divertissement
Kobach was the Chief Advocate for Trump.45’s repeated bogus illegal voting claims, and arguably qualified to chair the Advisory Commission as he was the Kansas Secretary of State, and thus responsible for Kansas state elections and vote counting, despite his extremist views. Kansas, a heretofore reliable Red State, don’t you know.
With Trump.45’s specific endorsement, Kobach led the way in 2018 as the Republican nominee for Governor in Kansas, this ruby red state. Just this week, all the voters in Kansas delivered their verdict on Kobach and his peculiar theories.
Kansas voters tossed Kobach definitively out on his ass (he got whipped by almost 50,000 votes out of 1 million cast). He lost the Governor’s office, and he will no longer be Secretary of State in charge of elections. And he lost to just a woman. Furthermore, due in part to the unseemly controversy Kobach engendered and encouraged, he cost veteran 4-term Republican Congressman Kevin Yoder a reliable Republican seat in the U.S House. Yoder was also a House Subcommittee Chairman, which would have been another Trump.45 inspired loss, if the Republicans hadn’t already lost the entire U.S. House of Representative majority and all Committee Chairmen, running on Trump.45 fuel this week.
Not to mention that Yoder was beaten (53%-44%) by Sharise Davids, a first-time political candidate, a woman, a Native American, a lesbian; as well as an Ivy League lawyer, community activist, White House Fellow, and professional MMA fighter. In other words, one of those “Very Tough Cookie” minorities Trump.45 is so afraid of facing directly. Oh, the horror.
I’m sure Yoder is very grateful tonight to Trump.45 for his unwelcome, incompetent interference in Kansas politics. This is just one more example of aTrump.45 surrogate paying the price for the cowardly leader’s bumbling prejudice. Trump.45 always talks boldly (where no President has gone before), and then takes several discreet physical steps backwards to duck the righteous fallout and blowback.
Why is This Man Smirking After Tuesday’s 2018 House Loss Debacle (35+ Seats)?
Continuing With the Simple Facts, Including Voting Elsewhere
Fifth, the Republican Party establishment as a whole, for the last decade has tested and escalated its newly fashioned assaults on Voting Rights and Voter Protections. Their modern Jim Crow tactics include such beauts as highly restrictive Voter ID provisions, frequent unwarranted Registered Voter roll purges, selective closing of voting locations in Democratic leaning areas, drastic reduction of early voting days and times, so called strict ‘exact match’ requirements for casting ballots, repeated mailings of voting misinformation, resistance to having a paper trail vote count backup to protect election integrity, illegitimate use of law enforcement personnel to intimidate minority voters, and the use of antiquated voting machine technology particularly in minority areas to slow voter throughput, among others.
You may think this is some sort of prank or joke, but there is an official U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC)*****, established in 2002 with four Commissioners nominated by the President upon recommendation of House and Senate Majority and Minority Leadership and confirmed by the Senate (two Commissioners from each party).
Trump.45 has sabotaged the Commission. As of March 2018 there are no Republican Commissioners, and Trump.45 failed to fill a second vacancy in 2017. So Trump.45 racks up two more failures to protect our voting democracy. For a laugher, take a look at this Commission website screenshot (November 9, 2018) which touts assistance for Election Officials operations plans from 2016. No, that is not a typo; 2016. Like from before we learned that there was Russian interference in U.S election systems. Trump.45 truly does have his Head in the Sand or Worse. And his Administration follows suit.
Republicans gleefully have led the way in Modern Voter Suppression, egged on and vocally led by Trump.45 in the last three years. So, if an independent observer had a mind to question whether fraudulent voter suppression and inaccurate voting outcomes happened in America in 2018, the first places to look would be none other than in Republican supervised states with a history of voter suppression (like say Florida, Georgia, Texas, etc.), as fostered by Trump.45.
Thus, the electoral relevance of “The Fraudster Always Yells Foul First” aphorism.
The counting and verification of all legally cast 2018 ballots continues in Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and California, in the ways mandated by state law for those elections not called yet. Two Senate seats (Arizona, Florida), two Governorships (Georgia, Florida), and approximately 13 U.S. House seats (five in California) are in the balance and remain to be determined as of noontime Friday.
Let the proper state and local officials do their jobs.
Summary
To sum up, the situation in Florida: legitimate votes are being counted legally now all over the state. Republicans made the current vote counting rules, the Republican Secretary of State is supervising all the election procedures, the voting machines, and the impending mandatory recounts for Senate and Governor. Republican legislators wrote the recount laws on the books. In other words, the election is being conducted exactly as the Republicans themselves wished it to go. If they screwed it up, they have no one to blame but themselves.
You’re in charge of the procedures. Get over yourselves.
Trump.45 has no legitimate role in this state election despite his Washington-based portentous head wagging gravamen on the White House lawn this morning, and simply blares out more of his too often offensive ignorance of legal niceties and procedures for credulous public consumption.
To return to our main theme, Trump.45’s Mega Bullhorn is defective in two senses. He spews falsehoods, lies, and misinformation at an alarming rate and high volume.
America would be so much better off if a magical truth amplifier diode or capacitor would short out the noise when he squawks.
And Trump.45 has redefined the traditional American notion of the Presidential Bully Pulpit to lead, heal, and unify the nation’s citizens. Trump.45 has turned his Bullhorn into a literal purveyor and broadcaster of BS.
So sad to watch and get drenched with it
*From the Wikipedia entry for the Florida Legislature:
The Florida Legislature is the Legislature of the U.S. State of Florida. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of an upper chamber, the Senate, and a lower chamber, the House of Representatives. Article III, Section 1 of the Florida Constitution, adopted in 1968, defines the role of the Legislature and how it is to be constituted. The Legislature is composed of 160 State Legislators (120 in the House and 40 in the Senate). The primary purpose of the Legislature is to enact new laws and amend or repeal existing laws. The Legislature meets in the Florida State Capitol building in Tallahassee.
**Florida Laws Section 102.166 Manual recounts of overvotes and undervotes (2018):
102.166 Manual recounts of overvotes and undervotes.—
(1) If the second set of unofficial returns pursuant to s. 102.141 indicates that a candidate for any office was defeated or eliminated by one-quarter of a percent or less of the votes cast for such office, that a candidate for retention to a judicial office was retained or not retained by one-quarter of a percent or less of the votes cast on the question of retention, or that a measure appearing on the ballot was approved or rejected by one-quarter of a percent or less of the votes cast on such measure, a manual recount of the overvotes and undervotes cast in the entire geographic jurisdiction of such office or ballot measure shall be ordered unless:
(a) The candidate or candidates defeated or eliminated from contention by one-quarter of 1 percent or fewer of the votes cast for such office request in writing that a recount not be made; or
(b) The number of overvotes and undervotes is fewer than the number of votes needed to change the outcome of the election.
The Secretary of State is responsible for ordering a manual recount for federal, state, and multicounty races. The county canvassing board or local board responsible for certifying the election is responsible for ordering a manual recount for all other races.
(2)(a) Any hardware or software used to identify and sort overvotes and undervotes for a given race or ballot measure must be certified by the Department of State as part of the voting system pursuant to s. 101.015. Any such hardware or software must be capable of simultaneously counting votes.
(b) Overvotes and undervotes shall be identified and sorted while recounting ballots pursuant to s. 102.141, if the hardware or software for this purpose has been certified or the department’s rules so provide.
(3) Any manual recount shall be open to the public.
(4)(a) A vote for a candidate or ballot measure shall be counted if there is a clear indication on the ballot that the voter has made a definite choice.
(b) The Department of State shall adopt specific rules for the federal write-in absentee ballot and for each certified voting system prescribing what constitutes a “clear indication on the ballot that the voter has made a definite choice.” The rules shall be consistent, to the extent practicable, and may not:
1. Exclusively provide that the voter must properly mark or designate his or her choice on the ballot; or
2. Contain a catch-all provision that fails to identify specific standards, such as “any other mark or indication clearly indicating that the voter has made a definite choice.”
(c) The rule for the federal write-in absentee ballot must address, at a minimum, the following issues:
1. The appropriate lines or spaces for designating a candidate choice and, for state and local races, the office or ballot measure to be voted, including the proximity of each to the other and the effect of intervening blank lines.
2. The sufficiency of designating a candidate’s first or last name when no other candidate in the race has the same or a similar name.
3. The sufficiency of designating a candidate’s first or last name when an opposing candidate has the same or a similar name, notwithstanding generational suffixes and titles such as “Jr.,” “Sr.,” or “III.” The rule should contemplate the sufficiency of additional first names and first initials, middle names and middle initials, generational suffixes and titles, nicknames, and, in general elections, the name or abbreviation of a political party.
4. Candidate designations containing both a qualified candidate’s name and a political party, including those in which the party designated is the candidate’s party, is not the candidate’s party, has an opposing candidate in the race, or does not have an opposing candidate in the race.
5. Situations where the abbreviation or name of a candidate is the same as the abbreviation or name of a political party to which the candidate does not belong, including those in which the party designated has another candidate in the race or does not have a candidate in the race.
6. The use of marks, symbols, or language, such as arrows, quotation marks, or the word “same” or “ditto,” to indicate that the same political party designation applies to all listed offices or the elector’s approval or disapproval of all listed ballot measures.
7. Situations in which an elector designates the name of a qualified candidate for an incorrect office.
8. Situations in which an elector designates an otherwise correct office name that includes an incorrect district number.
(5) Procedures for a manual recount are as follows:
(a) The county canvassing board shall appoint as many counting teams of at least two electors as is necessary to manually recount the ballots. A counting team must have, when possible, members of at least two political parties. A candidate involved in the race shall not be a member of the counting team.
(b) Each duplicate ballot prepared pursuant to s. 101.5614(4) or s. 102.141(7) shall be compared with the original ballot to ensure the correctness of the duplicate.
(c) If a counting team is unable to determine whether the ballot contains a clear indication that the voter has made a definite choice, the ballot shall be presented to the county canvassing board for a determination.
(d) The Department of State shall adopt detailed rules prescribing additional recount procedures for each certified voting system which shall be uniform to the extent practicable. The rules shall address, at a minimum, the following areas:
1. Security of ballots during the recount process;
2. Time and place of recounts;
3. Public observance of recounts;
4. Objections to ballot determinations;
5. Record of recount proceedings; and
6. Procedures relating to candidate and petitioner representatives.
History.—s. 9, ch. 18405, 1937; CGL 1940; Supp. 337(23-b); s. 7, ch. 22858, 1945; s. 5, ch. 26870, 1951; s. 30, ch. 28156, 1953; s. 24, ch. 57-1; s. 29, ch. 65-380; s. 27, ch. 77-175; s. 48, ch. 79-400; s. 15, ch. 89-348; s. 601, ch. 95-147; s. 1, ch. 99-339; s. 42, ch. 2001-40; s. 21, ch. 2002-17; s. 59, ch. 2005-277; s. 34, ch. 2007-30; s. 15, ch. 2010-167; s. 3, ch. 2011-162; s. 2, ch. 2015-40; s. 11, ch. 2018-112.
Note.—Former s. 100.25; s. 101.57.
***From the Miami Herald (November 9, 2018):
Three statewide elections in Florida are all close enough to require machine recounts, and two of them would require hand recounts of ballots, based on the latest results posted by the state Friday.
With Broward still counting early and mail ballots, according to the state website, and Palm Beach County still counting mail ballots, Gov. Rick Scott holds a lead of .18 percent over Sen. Bill Nelson, or 15,074 votes. (Broward elections officials said Thursday night that its count of early and mail ballots was complete and that they had “no idea” why the state website didn’t reflect that.)
Republican Ron DeSantis holds a lead of .44 percent over Democrat Andrew Gillum in the election for governor, or 36,211 votes.
Democrat Nikki Fried clings to a lead of .04 percent over Republican Matt Caldwell in the race for the Cabinet post of agriculture commissioner, or 2,915 votes.
The action on Friday will start at Broward Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, where a hearing on Scott’s suit against Snipes claiming violations of Florida’s public records laws is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Scott, President Donald Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio and Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel all took to Twitter to blast the performance of Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes.
Standing outside the Governor’s Mansion Thursday night, Scott accused Snipes and Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher, both Democrats, of trying to steal the election.
He cited past missteps by Snipes, all of them widely reported, but offered no evidence of election fraud, and ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate Snipes.
FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen was personally chosen by Scott in 2015, even though the appointment is subject to approval by the three elected Cabinet members.
Without elaboration, Scott told reporters: “I am considering every single legal option available.”
One option Scott has is to suspend Snipes or Bucher from office, but he has to cite evidence of malfeasance.
Scott appeared on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox Thursday night. Scott essentially repeated the same points he made earlier at the Governor’s Mansion, and Hannity told Scott: “It is obviously corrupt. Obviously laws were broken … You won this race hands down. This is a disgrace.”
Across the state, county canvassing boards will meet Friday to continue counting and rejecting provisional ballots. All counties have until noon Saturday to submit their first unofficial returns to Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who decides whether any or all of the three races meet the legal threshold for a machine recount.
Some counties are ready to start the machine recounts. In a conference call Thursday, they asked the state if they could begin the recounts now to save time.
‘That’s a great question,” Division of Elections director Maria Matthews said. “The answer is no.”
****From the Wikipedia entry for Ken Detzner, Florida Secretary of State:
Detzner was a registered Democrat until 1984 when he changed his registration to Republican. He worked as a lobbyist for the Florida Beer Wholesalers Association. He served as chief of staff to James C. Smith, then the Secretary of State of Florida, from 2002 to 2003. Following Jeb Bush’s re-election as Governor of Florida in the 2002 election, he appointed Detzner as interim Secretary of State, prior to Glenda Hood’s swearing in.
Kurt S. Browning, the Secretary of State, announced his resignation in January 2012 to run for Pasco County School Superintendent. Rick Scott, the Governor of Florida, appointed Detzner to the position to succeed him on January 18, 2012 and he was confirmed by the Florida State Senate in late February.
As Secretary of State, Detzner continued a voter purge begun by Browning. The United States Department of Justice intervened to stop the purge.
A further example of active illegal Republican voter suppression from 2013 by these same dudes in Florida (to wit: Rick Scott and Ken Detzner). They were caught by the U.S. Department of Justice and had to quit their organized voter purge shenanigans. Voter suppression under Republican hegemony is not post-racial, or consigned to the dustbin of history. It is alive and well. This year’s playing field has moved a bit to Georgia, Texas, North Dakota, and Kansas, among other places.
*****From the official U.S. Election Assistance Commission website:
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). EAC is an independent, bipartisan commission charged with developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and serving as a national clearinghouse of information on election administration. EAC also accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, as well as audits the use of HAVA funds.
Other responsibilities include maintaining the national mail voter registration form developed in accordance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993(opens in new tab).
HAVA established the Standards Board and the Board of Advisors to advise EAC. The law also established the Technical Guidelines Development Committee to assist EAC in the development of voluntary voting system guidelines.
The four EAC commissioners are appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. EAC is required to submit an annual report to Congress as well as testify periodically about HAVA progress and related issues. The commission also holds public meetings and hearings to inform the public about its progress and activities.
Commissioners
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) specifies that four commissioners are nominated by the President on recommendations from the majority and minority leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. No more than two commissioners may belong to the same political party. Once confirmed by the full Senate, commissioners may serve two consecutive terms. HAVA states that members of the commission shall continue to serve past their expired term until a successor takes office. There are two vacancies on the commission.
EAC’s Commissioners
Thomas Hicks and Christy McCormick were sworn in January 13, 2015 as EAC commissioners following their nomination by President Barack H. Obama and unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
Commissioner Thomas Hicks, Chair (D)
Commissioner Christy McCormick, Vice Chair (D)
Matthew Masterson (R) was an EAC Commissioner from December 16, 2014 until March 23, 2018.