The establishment media is dismissing the election scandal in Florida as a conservative conspiracy theory, but the evidence indicates something strange is afoot.
Republican Governor Rick Scott beat incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson for the state’s open Senate seat, but days after the election, election supervisors in Broward and Palm Beach counties were still adding votes to the tally.
NAPLES, FLORIDA – NOVEMBER 06: Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks as he stands with his wife, Ann Scott, (L) and daughter Alison Guimard (R) during his election night party at the LaPlaya Beach & Golf Resort on November 06, 2018 in Naples, Florida. Governor Scott defeated Sen. Bill Nelson for the Florida Senate seat. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The supervisors refused to share where the additional ballots were coming from and how many were left to count, leading Republicans in the state to cry foul.
The media swiftly rebuked Republican concerns of potential fraud or misconduct as “conspiracy theories” cooked up to deny Democrats the election.
Will Sommer of The Daily Beast wrote, “Republican and internet conspiracy theorists are freaking out as new ballots threaten their Florida Senate win.”
Republican and internet conspiracy theorists are freaking out as new ballots threaten their Florida Senate win. https://t.co/UTAhRr9Ocf
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 9, 2018
Trump, without evidence, accuses Democrats of ‘election theft’ in Florida Senate race https://t.co/x1EBlbcxq3
— POLITICO (@politico) November 10, 2018
“Republican” strategist and CNN contributor Ana Navarro similarly wrote on Twitter, “Some folks in Florida need to lay-off the Cuban coffee. Stop spreading conspiracy theories and let the process play-out.”
Man. Some folks in Florida need to lay-off the Cuban coffee. Stop spreading conspiracy theories and let the process play-out. We need to get every vote counted so that Floridians can accept the legitimate winner, whomever it may end up being.
— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) November 9, 2018
Vox alleged that Republicans are only upset with the process “because [Democrats are] counting all of the votes cast in the Florida Senate race.”
President Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Marco Rubio have accused Democrats of “trying to steal” the Florida Senate race … because they’re counting all of the votes cast in the Florida Senate race. https://t.co/gA5qa5OQVu
— Vox (@voxdotcom) November 10, 2018
Rick Scott launches voter fraud lawsuit based on conspiracy claim that ‘ragtime liberals’ are stealing Florida Senate electionhttps://t.co/OSYY20ABPb
— Raw Story (@RawStory) November 9, 2018
Republicans going hard on Florida because it worked once before and got them an entire presidency!
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) November 9, 2018
Despite the media’s dismissal, Republicans have already proved that election supervisors in the deep-blue counties of Broward and Palm Beach are acting improperly.
Scott filed two lawsuits on Thursday night alleging that Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher and Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes were breaking Florida election law.
A judge ruled in favor of Scott in both cases, ordering Bucher to submit “over-voted” and “under-voted” absentee ballots for public review, and ordering Snipes to hand over voter information.
Neither Bucher nor Snipes had complied with the court order by the 7 pm deadline Friday night.
EXCLUSIVE – Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher says it will be impossible to meet court ordered deadline to turn over ballots that her staff made decisions on – asking for emergency reconsideration hearing. @WPBF25News pic.twitter.com/MX3P9Gp16I
— Terri Parker (@wpbf_terri) November 9, 2018
Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reported late Friday night that Snipes had “accidentally” mixed bad provisional ballots with good ones, making it nearly impossible to determine which of those votes should be counted.
LAUDERHILL, FL – NOVEMBER 10: Dr. Brenda Snipes, Broward County Supervisor of Elections, makes a statement during a canvassing board meeting on November 10, 2018 in Lauderhill, Florida. Three close midterm election races for governor, senator, and agriculture commissioner are expected to recounted in Florida. (Photo by Joe Skipper/Getty Images)
“There are at least 20 illegal votes mixed into an anonymous pile of 205 [provisional ballots], all sitting in a machine that counted them but did not add them to the final count,” the Herald explained.
“The ballots cannot be identified,” Snipes confirmed.
The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway broke down the other ways in which the two counties had failed to follow Florida law — despite 65 out of 67 of Florida counties (including the ones devastated by hurricanes) doing it correctly.
Florida law also requires that vote-by-mail and absentee ballots are accounted for within 30 minutes of polls closing. While the other 65 counties in Florida had no problem following this state law, the supervisors of Broward County and Palm Beach County refused to follow that law.
Florida law also requires that the Department of State be given reports every 45 minutes until results are completely filed. Palm Beach County has refused to do this.
Finally, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Luke Rosiak reported Saturday that lawyers for Nelson and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum objected to non-citizen votes being thrown out during a review of provisional ballots.
The media has refused to admit the aforementioned improprieties could be an attempt to cover up fraud or that a lack of transparency makes fraud more likely.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo argued as much in an interview with Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Friday night. Gaetz pointed out in response that “when litigants hide evidence or potentially destroy evidence, there are adverse inferences drawn against those litigants.”
Radio and HillTV host Buck Sexton pointed out the media’s willful ignorance of why there are real concerns about the vote-counting process in a tweet Saturday. (RELATED: Sen. Graham Compares Florida Vote Count To Kavanaugh: ‘The Law Be Damned!’)
“Plenty of evidence of vote tampering and fraud, which is a precursor to election theft,” Sexton wrote. “The media is running narrative interference until the theft is achieved. Then it’s too late.”
“Without evidence” of election theft, sure. Because the election hasn’t been stolen *yet*-
Plenty of evidence of vote tampering and fraud, which is a precursor to election theft.
The media is running narrative interference until the theft is achieved. Then it’s too late. https://t.co/50xonRnoHZ
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) November 10, 2018
