In Light of Election Woes, Federal Judge Declares Florida the ‘Laughingstock of the World’

Florida is jacked up.

Six lawsuits over November elections are pending in Tallahassee. 67 counties are dealing with recounts. Nearly 4,000 ballots have been set aside due to the signature on file not matching the signature on the envelope. It’s a mess.

On Thursday, a federal judge excoriated the state, claiming it’s perpetually failed to anticipate such issues. Furthermore, he suggested Florida’s recount law is in violation of the 2000 Supreme Court ruling that solidified the winner of the presidency.

Apparently not one to mince words, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker lamented that Florida has become a planetary laughingstock:

“We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this.”

The laughingstock of the whole world!

Walker targeted not only the state in general but Palm Beach County in particular.

According to Mark, the sunshine state should’ve had enough equipment ready for the kind of recount it’s currently having to perform.

For the ballots with differing signatures, Walker set a Saturday 5:00 p.m. deadline for voters to present a valid I.D. and make the necessary correction. The almost-70 counties were given ’til 3 p.m. Thursday to complete the recount.

Meanwhile, the winner of the senator and governor race remains undetermined. The GOP has promised to appeal.

Palm Beach County Election Supervisor Susan Bucher has announced her county missed the deadline, because they “got stuck with some mechanical issues.”

Newsmax explains some of the election complexities:

Once the machine recount is complete, state law requires a hand review of races with margins of less than 0.25 percentage points. This almost certainly means another recount in the Senate race, with unofficial results showing Republican Gov. Rick Scott ahead of (Bill) Nelson by 0.14 percentage points.

Also, the election won’t be certified until Tuesday, even though the machine recount may essentially bring a conclusion to the governor’s race, where Republican Ron DeSantis leads Democrat Andrew Gillum by 0.41 percentage points in unofficial results.

Nelson, a three-time incumbent, has defended his legal strategy that resulted in Walker’s ruling, saying in a statement Wednesday that “it remains the most important goal of my campaign to make sure that every lawful vote be counted correctly in this Senate race, and that Floridians’ right to participate in this process is protected.”

Republicans, however, say in their own lawsuits and motions that Democrats are trying to change the rules after the voting didn’t go their way.

“We will continue to fight to defend Florida law and uphold the will of the voters,” said Chris Hartline, a spokesman for Scott.

Recounts, recounts, recounts. Something is afoot with all these election issues. What is it? 

President Trump believes voter fraud threatens Republican victory. Here’s coverage of his interview with The Daily Caller Wednesday, referencing Brenda Snipes, Broward County Election Supervisor:

Snipes has come under fire by media and elected Republicans for multiple irregularities in her vote reporting. After the Florida Senate race was called for Republican Gov. Rick Scott on election night, election supervisors in Broward and Palm Beach counties were still adding votes to their tally, in violation of Florida reporting law. In the subsequent days, Snipes defied a judge’s order to submit “over-voted” and “under-voted” absentee ballots for public review and admitted to “accidentally” mixing illegal ballots in with good ones. The illegal ballots “cannot be identified” now, according to Snipes.

…

[The President] pointed to Snipes’ past alleged election illegality, which included destroying ballots and opening ballots illegally.

“You look at her past, she’s a disaster,” Trump said, “Even with me. I won Florida and — you remember? That area, Broward, didn’t come in,” Trump said of Broward County and Snipes. “You can only put in so many votes, although she may change that system.”

“When they call this woman incompetent, they’re wrong,” Trump said of Snipes. “She’s very competent but in a bad way.”

When asked directly by TheDC if Snipes should be removed from office, Trump said, “Oh, she should have been removed — I think she should have been removed in the middle of this mix-up.”

…

Trump went on to say they should have called Florida during the evening of the election. “Well, many votes were added to that, and you know what’s going on. And now they have mixed them up. They mixed the votes up and now you can’t find the ones that were put in, they just put ’em in to a batch.”

The president also renewed his call for national voter ID laws and decried illegal voting.

“The Republicans don’t win and that’s because of potentially illegal votes,” Trump complained. “When people get in line that have absolutely no right to vote and they go around in circles. Sometimes they go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again. Nobody takes anything. It’s really a disgrace what’s going on.”

Something does have to change. Until then, Walker’s right — it’s a laughingstock.

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