Breaking news from Broward County: This is fine.
It’s all fine:
In Broward County, Miramar Elementary School teacher Lakeisha Sorey came across a box labeled “Provisional ballots” left behind at the school from Election Day & she’s concerned it might have votes. She didn’t look in the box because she didn’t want to tamper with it pic.twitter.com/x8WOa8tfKz
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) November 8, 2018
Sorey: “I wasn’t touching it. I don’t want anybody to say I tampered with anything. But I want to make sure that if there are votes in there that they’re counted”
“It makes me question everything that’s going on—just the fact that I want every1’s vote 2B counted”
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) November 8, 2018
Sorey said she spotted the box before leaving school about 4 p.m. She spoke to her principal who advised her not to touch it. She also spoke later to a state rep who referred her to me
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) November 8, 2018
For those folks unfamiliar with a provisional ballot, it's cast by a voter whose eligibility is in doubt. The ballot is placed in a sealed envelop & unsealed by the canvassing board. A voter by 5 pm today was supposed to have proved his eligibility to have his vote count
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) November 8, 2018
A few folks are asking about the teacher noticing the box: it was in the old cafeteria of the school, and it apparently blended in with other stuff and she just happened to see it at the end of the day
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) November 8, 2018
Oh.
No one noticed it yesterday? https://t.co/xh6KXZdlcs
— Jimmy (@JimmyPrinceton) November 8, 2018
Guess not!
Well isn't this convenient? https://t.co/nYZXl65Gr5
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) November 8, 2018
Ridiculous. They should be thrown in the trash. If there is no chain of custody and no one knows where they have been, there is no way to account for their authenticity.
All of these issues are happening in one county. https://t.co/XKaa33uKzZ
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) November 8, 2018
Too late to process them. Deadline was 5pm today.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 8, 2018
Welp.
I know it's tempting for Democrats to blame Republican voter suppression here, but Broward County is HEAVILY Democratic and the elections supervisor is a Democrat https://t.co/9Po1qK9i5k
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) November 8, 2018
“Voter fraud isn’t a real problem” https://t.co/rdNTb3baAs
— Inquisitor Kaiju (@kaijubushi) November 8, 2018
Hard to argue with that assessment. Or with this one:
Florida is a dumpster fire of incompetence. https://t.co/jikUen3ogh
— ƧЦƧΛП (@wayward_okie) November 8, 2018
Broward County certainly is.
Every other county has managed it.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 8, 2018
What is it with Broward County? Is there something in the water down there?
Brenda Snipes illegally destroyed ballots in 2016. Her office illegally posted results before polls had closed during the primary that year. Their refusal to give a total now is a clear violation. Auditors need to be called in.
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) November 8, 2018
There is absolutely no reason to give Broward the benefit of the doubt. https://t.co/Uz9ZQISWiC
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) November 8, 2018
Nope.
We don't just need recounts. We need an audit.
— Joseph M. Gabriel (@jmgabriel72) November 8, 2018
***
Updated:
Holy moly, there’s more:
Dr. Brenda Snipes, Broward SOE, said the county is done counting early voting ballots, with only mail-in and provisional ballots left. She said she’ll have an estimate on how many are left to count “soon”
— Alex Harris (@harrisalexc) November 8, 2018
Snipes’ Office has accepted 205 of about 600 provisional ballots. About 30 of those denied provisional ballots were cast by people who already voted by mail and tried to vote again in person.
— Alex Harris (@harrisalexc) November 8, 2018
Re: the accusations of double voting as voter fraud. @BrowardSOE lawyer Lisa Crawford (and several voting rights lawyers in the room) say these aren’t automatically voter fraud. The state attorney’s office would have to prove intent and that it’s not just a mistake
— Alex Harris (@harrisalexc) November 9, 2018
Snipes said she will answer the question of if the county gathered all the bins after this canvassing meeting https://t.co/Gd155Z9jJT
— Alex Harris (@harrisalexc) November 8, 2018
We’re sloooowly breaking down the reasons these provisional ballots are invalidated. So far: 28 because they were felons, 39 for inaccurate voter registration forms, 42 for wrong precinct, etc
— Alex Harris (@harrisalexc) November 8, 2018
It can always, always get worse.
***
Related:
BUSH VS. GORE PART II: Marco Rubio sounds the alarm over vote counting issues in Broward County, FL
Charles C. W. Cooke wants to know how Broward Co. doesn’t know how many votes it has left to count
