Another Florida Recount…

This past Tuesday America participated in another midterm election, and some of the results have still not been confirmed, specifically the Senate and Governor races in Florida.

Florida law requires an automatic computer recount in any election if the race is within .5%, and a manual recount if the race is within .25%. In the Governors race Ron DeSantis is leading Andrew Gillum by .44%, and in the Senate Rick Scott is leading Bill Nelson by .18%.

Both of these races are headed towards a recount, luckily however there shouldn’t be any hanging chads to mess with everything.

Image result for hanging chads

Along with the impending recounts there have also been waves of provisional and absentee ballots, from democratic strongholds, coming in and making these races closer and closer by the day. Even though both Democrats are losing currently, it is not impossible or even unlikely that they could wind up winning once all votes are counted and the recount officially happens.

As this process lengthens and it becomes more and more plausible that the democrats could pull out the wins, the Republicans are becoming defensive. Rick Scott, the Governor of Florida, directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate what he calls “potential rampant voter fraud” in two of Florida’s most democratic counties, where these late votes are coming from. There is zero basis for his claim that fraud is happening, but the law enforcement agency have said they plan to investigate.

Scott’s challenger, incumbent Senator Bill Nelson sent out a statement saying:

The idea of a recount, lasting a long time, in Florida is not foreign and neither is a Republican claiming there is voter fraud happening in the country. Most Republicans make the argument when debating voter ID (suppression) laws, not when they are on the brink of losing an election.

The issue with this argument is that it just isn’t based on facts. There is very minimal cases of voter fraud happening in America; a study in the Washington Post found that between 2000 and 2014 there were just 31 cases of voter fraud in America among the 1 billion total ballots casted. 31 out of 1 billion, let that sink in. The idea that this country needs voter ID laws, that disproportionately make it harder for minorities and poor people to vote, is ridiculous and is a solution in search of a problem.

This ploy by Scott isn’t new, and it isn’t based on any facts, but it is a way of getting Republicans riled up and making them believe that something is happening that actually isn’t, like Donald Trump’s recent campaign against a migrant caravan.

As Nelson said, it is a statement made out of desperation because Scott realizes he might lose a race he didn’t expect to lose just two days ago, and now he is lying to the people of Florida and creating a investigation and filing lawsuits over a claim that was made because he is upset.