Vote-Count ‘Shenanigans’ Trigger Recounts, Lawsuits, Republican Outrage In Florida

[thefederalist.com]

Republican leads for governor and U.S. Senate vanished as Democrats in areas known for corruption add tens of thousands of statistically unlikely votes days after the election.

At midnight on election day, Florida Gov. Rick Scott led incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson in the U.S. Senate race by just under 60,000 votes, just outside the margin for a mandatory machine recount. Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis led Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democrat, by about 80,000 votes. Gillum conceded his race that night, but Nelson refused.

In a secluded room away from the well-wishers gathered at his victory party in Naples, Florida, Scott’s team did some basic math and determined the remaining uncounted precincts couldn’t possibly contain enough Democrat votes for Nelson to overcome the 60,000-vote deficit. At midnight, Scott claimed victory in a subdued speech, then retired to bed.

When Republicans woke the next morning, they were stunned to learn Scott’s lead had shrunk by 22,000 votes, a seemingly impossible mathematical feat. Most of the newly counted ballots came from Broward County, but some were added from Palm Beach County (yes, that one). With Scott’s lead now down to just 38,000 votes, murmurs of a potential recount began to build. By mid-afternoon, more cartons of Democrat-leaning ballots had been added to the statewide total, trimming Scott’s margin over Nelson to around 30,000 votes.

Even at that point, Republicans didn’t seem overly concerned. After all, 30,000 votes is a lot to overcome, especially when all that remained to be counted were a few handfuls of provisional ballots, overseas military ballots likely favoring Republicans, and some straggling vote-by-mail and early ballots. And while the governor’s race had also tightened, it remained outside the mandatory recount margin.

That all changed on Thursday morning, when Republicans woke for the second day in a row to learn that overnight, still more Democrat votes had been dumped into the system, cutting Scott’s lead by 8,000 votes, putting it well within the mandatory hand-recount range.

Reporters, by now curious about why Broward County was still counting ballots when hurricane-ravaged Bay County had their work wrapped up on election night, asked Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes if she knew how many uncounted ballots remained.

“Not sure. I’m really not sure. But we are working on those,” she told CBS 4 News in Miami.

A few hours later, Snipes posted another 11,300 ballots to the state’s Division of Elections. Those new votes favored Democrats by more than 2-to-1, helping Bill Nelson close the gap even further, but also triggering mandatory recounts in the governor’s race, and flipping the race for agriculture commissioner from Republican to Democrat.

By 8 p.m. on Thursday, Scott had seen enough. With his lead now down to 15,092 votes, he filed a pair of lawsuits against the Broward and Palm Beach County election supervisors. The suits demand access to public records in an effort to find out how many ballots have been cast, how many have been counted, and how many ballots remain to be counted.

“I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of Florida,” Scott said during an emergency press conference on the front steps of the governor’s mansion late Thursday.

Amid reports that a teacher in Broward County found an abandoned ballot box in a storage area, Scott ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate Broward County’s handling of ballots and verify that the chain of custody has been properly maintained.

During the late-night press conference, Scott announced he is also seeking better access for poll watchers he says are being forced to observe from behind a glass wall that blocks audio and prevents them from being close enough to see what ballot handlers are doing.

Confidence in the counting process isn’t helped by the fact that Snipes has been caught with her hand in the cookie jar before. Just days before the 2016 general election, and again in 2018, Snipes was accused of violating Florida law when opening vote-by-mail ballot envelopes outside the watchful eyes of the legally required canvassing board. And earlier this year, a judge found she broke state and federal laws by destroying ballots cast in a primary election featuring Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

In the hour it took to draft this article between 10 and 11 p.m., two full days after the election, Rick Scott’s margin narrowed by five votes, while DeSantis’s margin narrowed by eight votes.

**********

(Hence the word "Blatant" to describe the Lib Voter Fraud in Florida this mid-term election cycle!)

"And earlier this year, a judge found she broke state and federal laws by destroying ballots cast in a primary election featuring Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz."


Tai
What's the story behind that?

Hi Tai,

It was a link in my original article above at The Federalist website itself -

Here it is -

Florida to monitor Broward election chief after judge finds ‘unlawful’ ballot destruction in Wasserman Schultz race

By MARC CAPUTO 05/14/2018

[www.politico.com]

MIAMI — The elections supervisor in Florida’s second-most populous county broke state and federal law by unlawfully destroying ballots cast in Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s 2016 Democratic primary, a judge ruled Friday in a case brought by the congresswoman’s challenger who wanted to check for voting irregularities.

In light of the ruling, Gov. Rick Scott’s administration — which has expressed concerns with how Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes has handled the case — told POLITICO that he’s reviewing the judge’s order and will have her office monitored.

“During the upcoming election, the Department of State will send a Florida elections expert from the Division of Elections to Supervisor Snipes’ office to ensure that all laws are followed so the citizens of Broward County can have the efficient, properly run election they deserve,” Scott’s office said in a written statement.

Snipes and her lawyer, Burnadette Norris-Weeks, did not return an email from POLITICO for comment, though a consultant working on the office’s behalf confirmed its receipt. Snipes’ predecessor was removed from office by former Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Senate for botching the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Tim Canova, a Nova Southeastern University law professor who ran against Wasserman Schultz in 2016 and is challenging her again this year as an independent, said Scott should suspend Snipes for destroying the paper ballots while his lawsuit was ongoing. Snipes has said it was a mistake and has noted her office made copies of the ballots.

But federal election law and state public records laws clearly show the paper ballots should have been preserved by the office.

“The governor has the power to dismiss Snipes from office for malfeasance and misfeasance,” Canova said. “The judge also pointed to the supervisor’s bad faith for continuing to litigate for months after admitting she destroyed the ballots, which will certainly run up the cost to taxpayers.”

Estimated attorney’s fees for Canova’s lawyer: More than $200,000 for more than a year of litigation.

In recent years, Snipes has faced a handful of controversies and lawsuits, one of which she recently won, over her handling of elections and voter information. A bipartisan group of election law experts told POLITICO last year that Snipes broke the law in destroying the ballots during the court case, but she kept fighting Canova in court.

The controversy unfolds as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has warned Florida election supervisors of the threat of hackers who could at least attack voter registration systems and undermine confidence in elections in the nation’s biggest swing state. With nearly 1.2 million registered voters, heavily Democratic Broward County is second only to Miami-Dade County in population.

Canova has expressed concerns about elections integrity as well.

After Canova lost his Aug. 30, 2016 primary to Wasserman Schultz, Canova began voicing doubts when documentary filmmaker Lulu Friesdat posted a blog item calling the results of the primary race between Canova and Wasserman Schultz “improbable,” prompting the congresswoman to later accuse Canova of trafficking in conspiracy theories.

Wasserman Schultz’s office said it had nothing to do with the decision by Snipes’ office to destroy the ballots.

But Snipes’ lawyer, Norris-Weeks, insisted in one hearing that she “certainly could get [a sworn statement] from Debbie Wasserman Schultz” to say that “she knows that they're preparing a documentary, and they're running all around talking to different people trying to do that.”

Canova has denied the accusation but noted that it suggests communication between the two offices.

In March of 2017, Friesdat, acting as Canova’s “agent," made a public records request to inspect the ballots in the 2016 primary, according to the court ruling. At one point, Snipes’ office wanted to charge $71,868.87 to sort and produce the ballots for inspection, according to documents filed in the case. In June of 2017, Canova sued.

As the suit dragged on, Snipes signed a Sept. 1 document to destroy the ballots — without informing either Canova or the court. The document she signed specifies that there should be no pending litigation.

“Nonetheless,” the following month, Snipes filed an answer to one of Canova’s motions and then “the destruction of the original paper ballots was not revealed until November 6, 2017," Broward Circuit Judge Raag Singhal said in his ruling.

That wasn’t the only problem.

Under longstanding federal law, ballots cast in a federal race aren’t supposed to be destroyed until 22 months after the election. And under state law, a public record sought in a court case is not supposed to be destroyed without a judge’s order. Also, state law says public records can’t be “for a period of 30 days after the date on which a written request ... was served.”

Snipes’ office, however, contended that it made high-quality digital copies of the ballots, so the records weren’t completely destroyed.

The judge wasn’t persuaded.

“This Court finds the Defendant's violation is two-fold: (1) violation of state and federal retention requirements and (2) violation of the affirmative responsibility to preserve evidence,” Singhal wrote. "This Court finds such premature destruction of the records unlawful and in violation of the Public Records Act."

Snipes argued in court that Canova made unreasonable requests and believed she “has broad discretion in determining if a records request is reasonable,” according to the suit. But Singhal said her argument was “contrary to the statutory requirements and plain and ordinary meaning of the Public Records Act.”

“Defendant's lack of intent to destroy evidence while this case was pending is irrelevant,” the judge noted.

Canova’s attorney, Leonard Collins, said Snipes’ intent in destroying the paper ballots would be a factor in determining criminal sanctions. He said the state attorney should investigate.

“We can’t bring the ballots back. But there are consequences to violating the law,” Collins said. “There are provisions in the law that: A) allow for criminal penalties for doing something like this and allow Gov. Rick Scott to suspend a records custodian for this. And we have a supervisor of elections in Broward who has shown complete malfeasance in terms of her ability to function and run and operate an office.”

Collins said the official in her office in charge of disposing of public records wasn’t able to easily distinguish between a state and federal election. That’s a problem because ballots cast in state elections can be destroyed 10 months earlier than ballots cast in federal elections. The man is paid $87,000 yearly, Collins said.

Scott’s office said he needs to know more about the case.

“We will review the order,” spokesman Jonathan Tupps said in a written statement. “The Secretary of State’s office will continue to ensure that every Supervisor of Elections understands and follows the law.”

*********

And btw, Politico is a leftist website, so the Republicans cannot be accused of fake news or conspiracy theory or whatever relating to this 2016 Debbie Wasserman-Schultz issue.

Florida Officials Are Investigating Democrat Party for Fraud and Looking at How They Cheated and Tried to Steal Election

[www.thegatewaypundit.com]

These past few weeks Americans stood back and watched the Florida elections anxiously waiting for the ever-changing final tallies.

Something was amok, we all knew it but we couldn’t exactly put a finger on it. Now, as the smoke clears, we know the Democrats attempted to steal the elections through fraudulent and sleazy tactics.

A former Communist Russian leader famously stated decades ago what has become a mantra on the left.

“The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”

This year’s midterm elections were no exception. Throughout the country there were reports of massive voter fraud. In California, Democrats reportedly bribed people on skid row for their signatures to obtain votes.

This must have worked as all the US House seats in Orange County, California, which was traditionally a Republican hotbed, suddenly voted for Democrats. What’s strange is over 40,000 more Democrats voted for the Democrat candidates in the Orange County Congressional races than voted for Democrat Gavin Newsom for governor. Less than 500,000 Orange County voters voted for the Democrat governor but tens of thousands of more votes were counted for Democrat US House candidates. Strange?

On election day it was reported that Democrats won the US House of Representatives, taking it back from Paul Ryan’s Republicans. But since election day Democrats have added at least 17 seats over Republican candidates who were winning on Election Day.

In the Senate, in Montana Senator Jon Tester — who was behind on election day — had a huge haul overnight and won by 5 points. In Arizona Taliban-supporting Marxist Kyrsten Sinema was declared the winner a week after votes were cast after being behind on election night. Also, in Florida Democrats discovered a secret stash of 83,000 votes after election day. This left their candidate, Senator Bill Nelson, only down 12,000 votes a week or so after election day forcing a recount.

The question is not whether Democrats around the country cheated and committed voter fraud, the question is how did they do it? They must have done more than pay people on skid row for their extra votes.

According to Legal Insurrection, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Office of Statewide Prosecution has opened up an investigation into the state’s Democratic Party over allegations of election fraud.
WCTV reported:

Evidence reported to the Department of State suggests a possible effort by Democrats to have voters fix ballots after the state’s deadline in at least four counties.

Cure forms for mail ballots sent to voters by the party show the return date changed from the day before the election to two days afterwards.

Democratic strategist Steve Schale says it was likely just a mix up.

“Some 23-year-old staffer probably got two dates mixed up,” said Schale. “They put the date down for the provisional ballot cure, not the absentee ballot cure, and actually by doing it, all they did was make it harder for their own voters to vote.”

It was no mix up. The Democrats sued and won a challenge to extend the voter deadline. But this was after they mailed out the fraudulent ballots with the wrong due dates on them. The Democrats were planning on having all these votes counted after the election deadline.

The bigger story is that Democrats in Florida somehow obtained a list of all absentee ballots that were ‘vote by mail’ with signature problems and contacted those people in hopes of having them provide their ballots so they could be counted in the election.

If Republicans were interested in not having elections stolen from them, they would fight for voter ID, and would put forth an effort to ensure better controls surround the vote by mail process around the country.

With no voter ID required, who knows who is mailing in ballots and ‘voting’ for Democrats. It’s time for Republicans to wake up and ensure the integrity of future elections.

Of course, nothing will come of all this because the Republicans are spineless.

FRAUD EXPERT: Democrat Efforts to Add Votes AFTER Election Day Potentially Grounds for RICO Investigation

[www.thegatewaypundit.com]

Senator Marco Rubio led the charge against Democrat Party voter manufacturing and voter fraud in the state of Florida.

Rubio called out Broward County two days after the election after the corrupt Democrat elections officials manufactured over 80,000 new ballots after Election Day.

On Thursday night Marco Rubio reported on the planned out Democrat voter fraud after Election Day.

Democrat leaders in Florida directed staffers and volunteers to share altered election forms to fix improper absentee ballots AFTER THE DEADLINE.

The plan was to have Florida voters fix and submit as many absentee votes as possible in hopes of including them in the vote totals.

The email was sent out to Democrat activists BEFORE Nelson and his party allies filed a series of lawsuits challenging some voting rules that applied during the election, claiming they disenfranchised voters.

A federal judge then ruled in Democrat’s favor to count these votes.


Now this…

A fraud specialist went on Breitbart.com radio on Friday and said the Democratic scheme to add votes after election day is “potentially grounds for a RICO investigation.”

Breitbart.com reported:

An effort to allegedly add Democrat votes after Election Day in Florida is “potentially grounds for a RICO” investigation, an election fraud expert says.
The Government Accountability Institute (GAI) research director Eric Eggers exclusively told SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Tonight‘s Senior Editors-at-Large Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak that a report revealing that Florida Democrats asked voters to submit absentee ballots after Election Day is a “smoking gun” and could possibly lead to a racketeering investigation.

Eggers said:

I spoke with a Republican attorney today who is quite familiar with this and connected to the inter-workings and they believe that it is not only the smoking gun, but it is potentially the grounds for a RICO case … this is not over.The first step is to get this out of the way. Let’s get the election certified and let’s get people sworn into office. But I think that this is a very real problem, ultimately whether it’s complete ignorance or an organized effort on behalf of the Florida Democratic Party to manipulate and violate the law … they sent altered forms out with the hopes that they could just get away with it because they could get some sympathetic judges who say, ‘Well, this is what the forms that these people received said so I guess we’ll have to go along with it.’

At the end of the day, the basic argument in Florida right now is this: Should the laws that were in place on the day of the election be upheld. And the Republicans are saying yes and the Democrats are saying no. [Emphasis added]