THIS IS WHY REPUBLICANS ARE CLAIMING VOTER FRAUD IN FLORIDA AND ARIZONA
Christal Hayes
After tweeting that "Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach," President Donald Trump blasted their handling of ballots. USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - Many Americans knew days ago who their elected officials would be following Tuesday midterm election.
But things have moved slower in several states due to razor-thin races. Some Republicans are claiming voter fraud. Democrats are vowing to make sure every ballot is counted.
The increasingly tense situations in Florida and Arizona have included lawsuits, protests, possible recounts, and even comments from President Donald Trump.
The tight races for Senate in Arizona, along with governor and Senate in Florida, have gotten tighter over the days as more ballots were counted. But the legal bickering has gotten ugly and soured already bitter races in a divided nation.
"It is incredibly troubling," said David Becker, a former Justice Department voting-rights lawyer. "These counties haven't even finished counting ballots. This is all about winning and nothing about fraud, but it comes at the cost of delegitimizing our own democracy."
The drama in Florida
Welcome to the Sunshine State, where the dramatic elections live.
The increasing tense race between Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Bill Nelson in Florida's Senate race spurred lawsuits from both candidates. All but two counties have finished counting ballots, but those counties have caused the margin of Scott's lead in the race to fall drastically, from 60,000 to about 15,000.
Scott filed a lawsuit alleging "rampant fraud" in the counties that heavily favor Democrats. Scott requested an investigation and questioned whether Democrat-led counties had been taking longer to count ballots in some sort of effort to inflate the Democratic vote.
Florida Governor and Senate candidate Rick Scott says he is asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate elections offices in Palm Beach and Broward counties, questioning whether they were trying to inflate the Democratic vote. (Nov. 9) AP
He didn't include any proof of the accusations, but the message took hold with Republicans across the state, even reaching the White House.
"Rick Scott was up by 50,000+ votes on Election Day, now they 'found' many votes and he is only up 15,000 votes. “'The Broward Effect.' How come they never find Republican votes?," President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter Friday.
The lawsuit led to a Broward County Circuit judge on Friday ordering Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes to release records requested by Scott and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee related to voting tabulations. The ruling did not include anything about the accusations of fraud.
The Broward County Canvassing Board was to meet in the early afternoon, and about 30 Republican protesters had gathered outside by midday.
“Don’t steal our election!” they shouted in chants alternated with songs including “The Star-Spangled Banner” and reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Palm Beach County Canvassing board is still reviewing ballots with irregularities 3 days after the midterm elections (Nov 11). AP
In the governor’s race, Democrat Andrew Gillum’s campaign says it’s readying for a possible recount. Gillum conceded to Republican Ron DeSantis on Tuesday night, though the race has since tightened. DeSantis led Gillum by 0.47 percentage point as of Thursday afternoon. That's under the 0.5 percent threshold for a recount.
The deeply purple state will learn Saturday whether there will be recounts in both races when unofficial vote counts are due.
Arizona catching Trump's attention
A similar scene is playing out in Arizona, where results continue to pour in for the Senate race between Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, tightening an already close race.
McSally held the early lead but Sinema, as of Friday evening, was ahead by more than 21,000 votes.
Still, 266,000 ballots need to be counted.
Amid the tally, Republicans accused the state of election fraud, alleging there was voting irregularities. They did not provide any proof of the claims.
President Donald Trump stoked fears about the issues, calling the process corrupt and questioning whether another election was needed.
“Just out — in Arizona, SIGNATURES DON’T MATCH,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Electoral corruption - Call for a new Election? We must protect our Democracy!”
Candidates for Arizona's U.S Senate seat are only separated by one percentage point. USA TODAY
McSally, Sinema and their allies poured tens of millions of dollars into advertising to help lock down the seat. Although Republicans maintained control of the Senate in this week's midterm elections, any seat picked up by a Democrat would eat into their narrow margin.
On Friday morning, the Arizona Republican Party accused Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes of "premeditated destruction of evidence" after "voting irregularities" in the election.
Local Republicans have brought a legal case against Fontes and other county recorders over the verification of signatures on some early ballots.
Fontes has argued that verifying the signatures ensures all legitimate votes are counted. Republicans say the practice is inconsistent because other county recorders don't try to verify ballots with mismatched signatures beyond Election Day.
Assertions of election fraud in Arizona ricocheted through talk radio and Republican Facebook groups Thursday night and Friday morning, as some perpetuated the idea that McSally's reversed lead was the result of a fraudulent or unfair process.
Why are the counts taking so long?
Votes are still being counted across the country but most Americans don't realize it because the races weren't close enough and thus, were already called.
The closer the race, the longer it can take to figure out the winner, Becker said.
There are a million reasons why ballots continue to be counted days after the election. Absentee ballots, provisional ballots and signature verification are among the most common reasons for delays.
"I think people have trouble realizing sometimes there are just close elections," Becker said. "You can have a big state like Arizona or Florida where people are split, and there's a process for that."
In Arizona, a large number of voters cast early ballots. These must be signature-verified and opened by a bipartisan board of election workers. That means many ballots turned in at the last minute take days or weeks to count.
In Florida, Broward County election officials have been adding early in-person votes and absentee ballots to the count over the last several days.
As of Friday afternoon, Broward and Palm Beach counties were the only counties in the state that had yet to complete vote-by-mail absentee counts and report them to the state, according to the Florida Department of State website. In addition to those, Broward had yet to completely report early voting ballots to the state.
Becker said the delays are normal and anything but rare, pointing to a Senate race in Minnesota, a Washington governor's race and of course, Florida's counting debacle in the 2000 presidential race.
He said the use of the word fraud was dangerous and could have an impact on voters in future elections.
"It doesn't reflect well on us as Americans that we want to win so bad that we're willing to tear down our institutions to do so," he said. "Sometimes our candidate loses a race. That's how the process works and it's up to all of us to respect it."
Contributing: Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Jessica Boehm of the Arizona Republic; Michael Collins of USA TODAY; Associated Press
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