Observations from an elections attorney - Florida recount

[mia]

Based on some of the comments I have heard online and in the media, it is important to clear a few things up about what exactly is going on with the election in Florida.

First, I am an elections attorney and I am currently involved in my 14th recount in Florida. Yes, even though you may have not seen it in the news, Florida has had hundreds of recounts in several races since 2000. Everything you are currently seeing on tv has been done around the state multiple times before on a smaller scale.

Second, this notion of “here we go again with Florida” is complete BS. We are a purple state so our elections are close. That’s all that happened, we had a close election. When you have very close elections, you have recounts to make sure we accurately tabulated the results. Most states have a procedure for this in close races, not just Florida. Because of our size and our demographics, elections are just closer here than in other states.

Third, this should all end smoothly on Sunday. Our laws were written to have a machine recount until this Thursday and then have a manual recount of over-votes and under-votes until Sunday when the final results should be certified. Yes, we have two rather large counties (Palm Beach and Broward) where their supervisors did not accurately prepare for this recount while other large counties like Miami-Dade, Hillsborough and Orange did. The small counties have way fewer ballots so they didn’t need as much prep. However, regardless of Broward and Palm Beach, and the lawsuits involving those counties, the machine recounts are currently proceeding throughout Florida with speed, efficiency and very little drama. This is obviously a good thing.

While Palm Beach and Broward have their issues, the state as a whole is in excellent shape. No election is perfect and close elections, less so, but that is part of democracy. The alternative sucks.

So rather than shrug about what is going on, come to your local elections department and watch democracy in action. This will be over soon and we will all be better as a result.

https://www.facebook.com/jc.planas/posts/10212458659253780

[dameatball]

1. Thank you. It was getting cold out here on the ledge. I think I'll go in now.

[mia]

3. Humor always lifts me up.

Thank you!

[Awsi Dooger]

2. Problem was before election day, not after

Brenda Snipes was on Cuomo last night. She said the ballot design matched Florida ballot code and that it was reviewed by other sources beforehand.

Hard to believe everyone missed the potential problem of that layout on column one.

[dembotoz]

5. used to work in print advertising ...mistakes happen

[mitch96]

6. I voted in Broward County and I missed it the first time

After I read the instructions in english, I did not need to read the spanish or creole and went to the next column.. Surprise!! the box for senator was below the spanish/creole instructions.
I went over the ballot a second time and found my mistake...
Poor design and poor execution.. I wonder how many people of BOTH parties did this...
m

[dubyadiprecession]

4. Florida can't do a close election.

That’s when “the rubber band snaps and the wheels fall off”.
Of course, they would also have voting machine scanners that would overheat and break down! Why not?!