Peak Florida: there will be recounts in FL governor, senate & congressional races

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I’m sorry, Florida. I’m sorry for all of the harsh things I said about you on Election Night and in the hours and days after the polls closed. It’s not your fault entirely, although I really wish that Floridians would decide en masse to actually fix all of your voting problems and Republican problems all at once. Some of you would argue that was what you trying to do. As it turns out, the governor’s race AND the Senate race in Florida were a lot tighter than we were led to believe on Election Night. And of course, there’s a mountain of election fraud, voter suppression and regular Florida shenanigans.

Election officials, campaign operatives and lawyers across Florida are gearing up for massive recounts in large part due to a familiar problem: Broward County, which has been saddled with election controversies ever since the disputed 2000 presidential race.

All eyes are on that problematic South Florida county – Florida’s second largest and one of its most Democratic – as it lags nearly every other in the state in reporting ballot tallies. The county’s results could help decide the races for U.S. Senate, governor and agriculture commissioner, which are headed for recounts.

On Wednesday alone, 22,000 new Broward votes were tallied, narrowing the margins further in Democrats’ favor in the races. And, thanks to Broward, the gubernatorial race on Thursday afternoon hit the threshold for a recount and Democrat Nikki Fried took the lead over Rep. Matt Caldwell in the agriculture commissioner race by a mere 583 votes.

With so much riding on the nation’s largest swing state – a U.S. Senate seat, a Florida Cabinet seat and perhaps a gubernatorial recount — Broward’s supervisor of elections, Brenda Snipes, won’t or can’t say how many ballots there are left to count.

[From Politico]

If you’re of a certain age and a certain political sensibility, the words “Florida Recount” are always going to taste like heartbreak, whiskey and tears. I’m still torn up about the 2000 election. But here’s hoping that we’ve learned more about the GOP’s asymmetrical warfare. Marco Rubio has been on Twitter, taking bold stands against democracy and already claiming that Democrats are trying to “steal” an election by, you know, counting every vote – go here to read some of his tweets. Andrew Gillum – the Democratic nominee for governor – is talking about how he’s ready for a fight, and he had the simple message:

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97 Responses to “Peak Florida: there will be recounts in FL governor, senate & congressional races”

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  1. Maya says:

    Same I apologise to people from Florida as well.

    Here’s hoping that the recount here and in Georgia turns out to be Blue…

  2. Esmom says:

    It did seem like Gillum conceded awfully early but thank goodness his concession isn’t legally binding as some jackwagons on twitter were trying to claim. Concession speeches/calls are mere courtesies, apparently. And thankfully.

    Rubio is unbelievable. Is he also auditioning for AG?

    • Lightpurple says:

      He’s auditioning to be the next Mr. Ivanka.

    • Swack says:

      Then he’s right in line with Trump because Trump tweeted this, this morning:

      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!

      • Kitten says:

        This is a preview for 2020 if he is able to run for POTUS. Lawsuits and shady investigations to dispute the election results and halt vote-counting. All of this is so disgusting and so completely predictable. GOP playbook classic: lie, cheat, steal..accumulate power at all costs.

      • whatWHAT? says:

        “GOP playbook classic: lie, cheat, steal..accumulate power at all costs.”

        fundamental difference between Dem and GOP.

        Dems want voting to be easier and every vote to count. even if they don’t win, they want a fair election with everyone able to cast a vote.

        the GOP just wants to win, and don’t care about the means to the end.

    • Miss M says:

      Agree, Esmon. It was too early to concede.

    • kacy says:

      I don’t know that Gillum is going to pull it out. I think Nelson will, but there were splits on the govenor’s race and the Latino vote for DeSantis was over 40% due to his running mate.

  3. Ninks says:

    I couldn’t understand why Gillum conceded so early on Tuesday night, I still don’t, but I am glad to see he’s fighting for it now.

    • Kitten says:

      Because he’s a classy guy. I think it was an earnest and sincerely-made gesture that happened to be a big mistake. Gillum is a really savvy politician, but I do think he might be a tad naïve when it comes to GOP trickery.

      I hope Nelson and Gillum win and bring some redemption to Florida. They would be so fantastic for that state.

      • Jessica says:

        I don’t think it has anything to do with being classy or not. Stacey Abrams still hasn’t conceded and she’s a very classy lady, she’s actually doing what democrats needs to do by taking in on voter suppression in her state.
        You can run the shiniest white guy Beto or whoever and you won’t win if republicans are using voter suppression and gerrymandering to suppress the vote.
        This should be the number one issue for democrats going forward along with money out of politics.

      • Juls says:

        @ Jessica: and term limits. We the people want them. Somebody needs to step up and make it happen.

      • Kitten says:

        Meh. Abrams was always going to push back, knowing how much corruption she faced with Kemp. She was prepared for it. Not sure Gillum was.

      • Lilly says:

        @Kitten as usual I agree with your comments and here’s to real counts and justice within the system!

    • Veronica S. says:

      I hate to say this, but honestly, I think as a black man, Andrew Gillum has likely learned to accept the worst out of American civilians. Yes, we had a black president – who spent most of his two terms fighting a recalcitrant Republican Congress and dealing with persistent racism. Who then got replaced by a literal neo-Nazi. If I were an ethnic minority in America, I wouldn’t trust us to do anything right at this point. Hence the concession – because it’s no longer a surprise to anyone about how racist American voters are.

      • Erinn says:

        I think that’s part of it, honestly. And it’s heartbreaking.

      • The Other Katherine says:

        Yuuuup. I have to imagine Gillum looked at the numbers coming in, heaved a big sigh, thought “well, white people gonna white,” and wanted to get it over with. Don’t blame him a bit. I’m really, really happy, though, that he’s going to see where the recount process goes instead of sticking with conceding for fear of being seen to change his mind. Every voter deserves to have their vote counted.

      • Person3514 says:

        I completely agree with you, unfortunately. A lot of Florida is a bunch of racist back water hicks. I grew up in a small town in Florida and I’ve lived all over the state. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like Florida is super racist.

      • Lilly says:

        Yep.

      • Jaded says:

        As a Canadian who visited family in South Florida for many years, family who were defiantly, frothing-at-the-mouth Republicans, I concur that it is crammed full of the worst kind of white racist hillbillys. I recall one evening at a seafood restaurant in Key Largo, my sister-in-law just about flew out of her seat when a young East Indian woman came into the restaurant looking for someone. She wasn’t in full body armour, she merely wore a sari with a headscarf. We literally had to restrain our family member physically because she was going to confront her. I recall her saying something like “What the G-D hell is she doing here??? She doesn’t belong here!!!” I was appalled. That was the last time I visited them, I just couldn’t deal with the stupidity and hatred of so many people.

      • pinetree13 says:

        Wait what Jaded?!?!?!

        Your family was upset that an Indian woman….exists?! She just, was in the restaurant?! What the heck. What did she want her to do? Wait in the alley for food scraps?!?! I cannot even imagine this scenario it is so shocking to me. I ton’d understand what she was even saying/thinking. She needs a mental evaluation.

      • Anna says:

        Truth. And it’s not just “hicks” as some people are saying. The votes for white supremacy come from every level of white society. Middle- and upper-class white folks need to address the fact instead of deflecting to some “hick” population on whom all the blame is heaped. Remember, 70+% of white women voted for Kemp. That is not just some no-nothing group. It’s 3 of every 4 white women in the state. The rot of America is deep and from its inception centuries ago. For some of us, none of this is surprising or new.

    • Surely Wolfbeak says:

      Gillum conceded early because every major media outlet called Florida early. Because they’ve learned so much since 2000.

      • Kitten says:

        This too. There was mounting pressure on him from the GOP and others to concede. And yes, we have literally learned nothing since 2000.

    • noway says:

      Maybe he thought his state had fixed their wacked out voting process from the 2000 election. I mean even with tons of money and just doing it for historical purposes, the bipartisan group couldn’t come up with a consensus. One way of analyzing Gore would have won, but another way and Bush would have won. Their ballots were so messed up and easily confused you end up not really knowing what the voters wanted. Apparently they still have similar issues, but I have to be honest I’m glad we aren’t talking about hanging chads yet.

      If Scott loses the Senate race he deserves it. He was Governor for 8 years and claims he knew Broward was messed up. If that is the case then why didn’t he fix it. Even if his claim is correct, he didn’t care as long as it benefitted him. FYI Broward, Miami Dade, and Palm Beach are all going to have issues and take longer cause they are so much larger than everyone else. If you wanted it fast you should have created early voting, hired more people and had more polling places. Instead of making less people count 3 times the amount of votes as your Republican districts had. I mean California said if it was close you wouldn’t know until next week.

      Sorry I still blame Fla and I blame the US too. We know we have voting issues. Some states don’t have paper ballot back ups, voter supression, I.d. issues, some claim voter fraud, etc. and yet we do nothing or very little. I know the ACLU is suing on voter suppression issues, but it not enough. We need a better more hack proof system, and we still do nothing.

  4. CatMc says:

    I’m from Broward and I’m pretty sure this county went hard for Gillum. I know the Broward SOE were asking for help counting absentee ballots last weekend as they were overwhelmed.

  5. Jerusha says:

    Send in some UN election observers, please. I have no doubt at all that there was widespread cheating in Florida, Texas, and ESPECIALLY, Georgia.

    • Esmom says:

      Indiana, too, up in the blue northwest part of the state. Someone here reported the suppression shenanigans and I saw a news story on it yesterday. So distressing and enraging.

    • Surely Wolfbeak says:

      Florida is one of only three states in the US that use easily hacked cellular modems for reporting totals on election night. They’ve been warned about this by cyber security experts since 2013 and have done nothing but dismiss it. If there were shenanigans (and I don’t want to sound too much like a conspiracist but Rick Scott and Marco Rubio opened the door) a hand recount, which is what the margin in the Nelson/Scott race would require, would uncover it. I’m not saying that’s why these two are tying themselves up in knots all of a sudden, but Florida’s election system is about to be closely examined and they are panicked.

    • Va Va Kaboom says:

      Posted in the wrong spot

    • Pandy says:

      Yup, I wouldn’t trust anyone – Georgia especially!

  6. Lightpurple says:

    Rubio’s staff is going to have to listen to a rather enraged voice mail this morning. As will the staff of Lindsey Graham. Not one of them had a peep to say about their neighbor Kemp suppressing votes in Georgia but spent yesterday whining and lying non-stop about Broward Country.

    • Esmom says:

      The lies and the disinformation just never, ever end. The Acosta thing was a special kind of insanity and to see Rubio’s tweets about Broward in the midst of that almost gave me a rage stroke.

      • The Other Katherine says:

        What the Republican Party has learned from Trump is that your lies don’t even have to be plausible if you use your propaganda apparatus to reinforce them to your low-information cult followers. It’s like all the Rs who were busy saying they would protect people with preexisting conditions if elected, when literally everything in their record showed the exact opposite. And it’s very telling that the Republicans’ idea of a “good” election is one in which the votes are tallied quickly, rather than completely — so long as that quick tally looks good for their candidate. I mean, we already knew from 2000 that they weren’t serious about all votes actually mattering, but watching them double down on that stance is something to behold.

      • Esmom says:

        TOK, Yes to everything you said. I honestly don’t know how to combat this approach. The Daily podcast had a good take on a House race in VA and how their successful approach might work for other races but unfortunately the playing field will never, ever be level.

      • Veronica S. says:

        Or more accurately: tell the lies people want to believe. A lot of people who voted for Trump in America are part of that demographic who act exactly because they’re terrified of the reality that they’re a dying species.

    • Christin says:

      Repeat a big lie often enough… That is all I can think of these days. And the projection is obvious.

    • H says:

      Call his Sanford office, @Lightpurple. The Miami ones never answer. I call about once a month to grip to an intern about dear ol Marco. I’m sure I’m on a list.

  7. ItReallyIsYou,NotMe says:

    Did you hear that 70,000 uncounted absentee ballots were found on a mail truck after election night? Even if 70% of those Voted blue (which is very likely in South Florida), that would be enough to change the results.

    • Mandy Melons says:

      I used to work with the USPS and this is a very real issue. The carriers can very easily choose to throw any piece of mail into a ditch if they want.

    • Trashaddict says:

      This is exactly why I didn’t vote absentee. I also worried about voting early. Does anybody here know how those votes are counted and tracked?

  8. Elkie says:

    Takes me back to the halcyon days of hanging chads and the GOP squeeking an election victory off the back of a tiny majority dwarfed by the vast numbers of disenfranchised mostly-minority voters.

    Who knows, maybe it’s the foreshadowing of another endless, multi-trillion-dollar pointless illegal war in the Middle East? *coughIrancough

    • RBC says:

      Yes, with Sessions being fired and Mueller by all accounts ready to finish his investigation, indictments looming(looking at you Don Jr). I can see 45 starting some conflict with Iran to provide a distraction from domestic problems

    • Juls says:

      Republicans aren’t really worried, they are just huffing and puffing for show. They’ll just sue until it reaches the Supreme Court and we know which way it will go now that Kavanaugh has a seat. Same as 2000.

    • The Other Katherine says:

      My PTSD from 2000 is flaring up. Bigly.

  9. Redgrl says:

    God I hate republicans.

  10. minx says:

    Yessss!

  11. Sam says:

    It’s astonishing that 16% of Americans get 50% representation in the senate. GOP cannot, cannot win an election without gerrymandering and voter suppresion in a country that is increasingly becoming more liberal.

    Abolish the electoral college, 40 million people should not have the same amount of representatives as 2 million. This is ludicrous.

    • Juls says:

      I totally agree. Winner take all is bogus. If a candidate wins 51% of a state’s votes, they get 100% of the electoral votes, completely disenfranchising the other 49% of voters. If they won’t abolish the EC, then the votes need to be split by percentage at the VERY least.

      • BabyJane says:

        Doesn’t even have to be 51% of the popular votes in a state. If there are 3 or more candidates running, it’s very possible to win all the electoral votes with less than 50%.

    • Veronica S. says:

      The system was designed before America was expanded outward into the size it is now – and the representation was intentionally designed around the needs of slave states. It’s almost like…*gasp* a group of 18th century slave owners may not have had the best ideas for democracy in mind.

  12. Fabulous says:

    It seems like there is always something dodgy going on with the votes in Florida 🙁

    • tinyfencer says:

      Oh, there is DEFINITELY something dodgy going on here. I live in Florida and this year I voted a straight Democratic ticket for the first time in my life. I moved from one county to another over the summer and when I updated my voter registration after the move I changed my party registration to Democrat so I could vote in the primary, because we have a closed primary. Somehow my voter registration card came back with my party affiliation as Libertarian, and it was not fixed until after the primary was over, so wasn’t able to vote. I was livid.

      • Really? says:

        The same thing happened to me in the tri-state area. The Division of Elections updates the registration card manually, so mistakes easily happen. However, when I called to advise them of their mistake, the clerk who answered wouldn’t update it until I spoke to her supervisor. Luckily though, I live in a blue state, so it didn’t make much of a difference.

  13. Meowuirose says:

    Well it’s FL, what do you expect? They are pretty incapable all around. It needs to hurry up and be flooded by rising sea levels. Lived there for years, nothing but racist, ignorant, loud aholes.

    • Surely Wolfbeak says:

      Don’t give up on Florida yet! Amendment 4 passed, and 1.5 million disenfranchised voters get their rights back. Republicans know this is their last hoorah. (And we have Publix subs!)

      • Erinn says:

        Ah god. The only US trip I did was to Disney with my family… twice. The second time we went, we stayed at Floridays… which was like an 8 minute walk to Publix at Regency Village. I could have lived in that Publix. A good chunk of FL is super sketch (but there’s plenty of sketch where I live too), but there’s a lot of legitimately nice, reasonable people there. We’re from NS, so I mean, we have fresh produce but it’s not the same kind of thing at all as it is buying fresh fruit somewhere with a much warmer climate. And just… everything I ate from Publix tasted so good – I’m not going to lie, I miss it. I miss a freaking grocery store.

      • Jerusha says:

        And kudos to FL for that. These are the four amendments that passed in AL with overwhelming majorities. Notice numbers one and two. Supreme Court here we come ‘cause we have so much money to waste.
        https://patch.com/alabama/birmingham-al/alabama-election-results-2018-constitutional-amendments

        PS Love Publix. Their cranberry walnut bread. Yummmmm.

      • BeanieBean says:

        Oh, Alabama! Good gad! And I concur with all the Publix fans.

    • Chingona says:

      Wow, really your comment sure says a lot! I live in Florida but have traveled all over the world and believe me there are racist people everywhere. The racist in Florida are just are more vocal and visible, which I prefer to down low racist as I can choose who I interact and do business with.Not all Floridians are racist hicks, there are people who come from all over the world who are some of the nicest and hardworking people I have ever met. So for someone to discount all Floridians and say it should flood is kind of well dumb, should the world believe all Americans are racist and dumb because Trump is president.

  14. Beth says:

    Tuesday night was so stressful because the race for offices were so incredibly close, back and forth leads, and only a couple thousand votes apart. Please, please, please fix the voting problems, do a recount, and let this go the way we Floridians with common sense deserve

  15. Eric says:

    Well, I’m not sorry and after the recount I’m personally going over to Florida and sawing it off so it floats away.
    Be gone as take that sulfurous smell with you!

    • Beth says:

      Please don’t forget that not all people who live in Florida deserve to float away. I’m a 100% blue voter and was born and raised in New England. Most of the people I know here in Florida weren’t even born here, they moved here after retiring or to take care of family and their kids were first generation Floridians. I don’t want to be sawed off by my fellow Americans, I did nothing wrong

      • waitwhat says:

        Seriously, what’s with the personal attacks on all things Florida? Some of my greatest childhood memories were made there (family Spring Breaks in good old Pompano Beach) so I have a soft spot for the Sunshine State. And, heck, I’m in AZ now – we’re just as screwy with our Sinema-McSally senate race. And guns. And rednecks. But that’s not the whole darn state.

      • Eric says:

        It’s a joke. But it’s not funny that Florida was responsible for Bush/Gore, Bush/Kerry, EZ/Clinton and now this.

        Ok ok I will only saw the Panhandle off.
        😂

      • H says:

        @Eric, we’d all like to saw the Panhandle off. -FL resident

    • Aang says:

      Please leave a little land bridge connecting Disney World. God help me but I love Mickey.

  16. Here or there says:

    Oh god, you had to bring up 2000? I remember that election. The first I was able to vote in due to age, and I spent that evening in a bar drowning my sorrows in margaritas.

    • Juls says:

      It was my first time to legally vote also. I drove 2 hours to my hometown to vote for Gore because I had just started college. How different would the world be if it weren’t for the Florida shenanigans and Gore had been president? He won that election. There would have been no wars for our peers to be shipped off to (I personally lost a close friend in Afghanistan in 2007). God only knows where we would be on climate change. I still cry and have the urge to drink when I think where we could be right now. Gah!

      • Veronica S. says:

        Honestly, with all the focus on Trump and his obvious neo-Nazism, it’s mind-blowing to explain to Gen Zers just how evil and corrupt the 2000s elections are and how dramatically the choices the Bush administration made altered America. 9/11 was a reckoning for this country, but the course we pursued in the years that followed are what set us on the trajectory we are now. Even Bush could see that. There’s a reason he called himself the “last Republican president.” A part of him knew what he helped create.

      • Q T Hush says:

        I feel you Juls. Always loved Al as he’s a decent human being. His family made money off of killing people with tobacco and he had the guts to stop it. There isn’t a decent bone in our current “leader of the free world” bloated orange body. Time to lock him up!!!

    • The Other Katherine says:

      I’m so glad that I’m old enough that I got to vote for Bill Clinton twice, even though I think he’s super sketchy and deserved to be impeached. I cannot imagine how demoralizing it would be to vote in my first presidential election for Al Gore and then watch Bush get installed by SCOTUS because Republican Sandra Day O’Connor wanted to retire and have a Republican pick her successor. Ugh. It’s no wonder young people feel like their vote doesn’t matter (but I’m awfully grateful for every one of you who kept on voting).

    • Aang says:

      I was pregnant, went to bed early fully expecting to wake up to President Gore and happy with the world into which my child was to be born. Not perfect but working to get better. I woke up to an 8 year nightmare. Then Obama came along and I believed in goodness again. I won’t be so stupid again. People suck. I tell my kids Drs and engineers (engineers that can actually build and fix things) will be worshipped when the world collapses so choose a profession wisely because we are on a speeding train to hell.

  17. Veronica S. says:

    What a surprise. Contemporary Republicans demonizing a basic democratic recount function that kicks in whenever this sort of thing happens.

    It’s almost like they were counting on the voter suppression or something.

  18. Kelly says:

    Wisconsin would like be facing a recount in the governor and attorney general’s race if Scott Walker hadn’t signed a law limiting when a recount could happen, including if there’s a 1% difference and/or less than 10,000 votes between the top two. He couldn’t request a recount when he lost because he trailed by 1.2%. That’s the one positive thing he did during this last two years and only because of the Jill Stein requested recount in the 2016 presidential race.

  19. waitwhat says:

    Feelgood story of the day (for me anyway): As our Dem senate candidate overtakes a hard-line Trumpster, the Repub attempt at voter suppression gets shut down. https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-eyes-suit-arizona-gop-over-ballots-senate-175734418–election.html.

  20. tw says:

    Imagine how different the world would be if Al Gore had won……sensible climate policy and no Iraq war, sigh. Florida is the 90’s rat tail of the continental US, and somedays I wish we could just cut it off and allow it to sink to the bottom of the sea.

    • I’ve thought a lot about that lately, if Gore had won. The wars that wouldn’t have been fought. The power vacuum in the ME, that allowed the further rise in terrorist groups, we wouldn’t have created. The deaths of innocent people that never would’ve happened. Back before war became a business plan. Sometimes I wish I could see that world, but in reality it would break my heart far more than wondering, what if?

  21. Va Va Kaboom says:

    Ever notice that despite all the talk of Democrats getting illegal immigrants and the dead to vote, the only proven election f*$&@ery almost always flows from the other direction? Apparently Democrats are the ninjas of election fraud.

    • Alarmjaguar says:

      The Republicans are masters at projection. If they accuse the Dems of something, you can bet they are doing it themselves!

      • tw says:

        YES!
        “Lock her up” is the best example of this. How many Republicans have been forced to resign, indicted, awaiting sentencing? Trump is still using his private phone! It’s insane.

      • Q T Hush says:

        And Al Franken resigns with pressure from Pelosi and Schumer because of his sophomoric humor about female anatomy. Franken was a private citizen when the pictures were taken. His career as a comic was in full speed and we all see male comics revert back to locker room humor when all else fails. What a stupid way to lose a senate seat. I’m a boomer and would love to see some new blood and energy in our political system. Go Beto, I’d vote for him In a heartbeat. At least he is capable of intelligent and cognitive thought. He’s so unlike like the bigly ignoramous in charge currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

  22. Other Renee says:

    Funny story. My mom lives in Palm Beach county and after she voted in 2000, she told me that something was wrong with the ballot itself. My response: “Don’t worry about it, Mom. It’s just one county. What difference can it make overall?” I kid you not.

    And… my stepdad was one of the recounters!! I didn’t know that til I SAW HIM ON CNN! I flipped! (They both volunteered for the registrar in helping seniors in nursing homes vote. So they were very familiar with the whole voting process.)

    This sounds totally made up but I promise it’s true!

  23. JANAK says:

    What in the hell is wrong with Florida? There has been some kind of corruption every single election cycle since 2000! They need someone other than the government running their elections, the government in Florida is obviously either corrupt, incompetent or both.

  24. gingersnaps says:

    Praying for a miracle for Florida & Georgia. I know it’s a slim chance but I still want to have hope.

  25. YassQueen says:

    Not an American but praying for Stacey and Andrew to win.

  26. Rae says:

    I have to apologise to Georgia and Florida; I was cursing them on election night, but I’m happy to eat humble pie now.

    Even if the counts don’t change the current results, I’m thrilled to see two of the most republican states go throughly PURPLE. I see a future that America can truly be proud of. I’m excited to see what happens over the next few years.