You Ain\u2019t Got the Votes<\/p>\n
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Yes \u2013 another Hamilton reference \u2013 the theme of our time!!!<\/i><\/p>\n
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I\u2019m sitting in my camper in beautiful Florida; home of palm trees, beaches, fire ants, and never-ending election turmoil.\u00a0\u00a0This is a state so on the edge of Republican and Democrat that \u201cpurple\u201d really doesn’t describe how narrow the margins are.\u00a0\u00a0But just because Florida is teetering on balance doesn\u2019t mean that the support for either party is throughout the state.\u00a0\u00a0Florida has Democratic strongholds, and huge swaths of what we now call Trump Country.<\/p>\n
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So it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise that the highly contested election of 2018 didn\u2019t finish on Election Day.\u00a0The Senate race pitted an old fashioned Democratic candidate, three-termer Bill Nelson, against a healthcare billionaire turned Governor, Rick Scott.\u00a0\u00a0The Governor\u2019s race pitted Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, vying to be the first black man to earn the office, against Congressman Rick DeSantis, who literally modeled himself after President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
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Over eight million votes were cast in the Florida election.\u00a0\u00a0They have \u201call\u201d been unofficially counted \u2013 it took until Saturday – leaving Scott with a less than 13,000 vote lead, 0.2%.\u00a0\u00a0DeSantis has a 33,000 vote lead, 0.3%.\u00a0\u00a0Election boards had to wait for late mail arrivals of absentee votes, and check the validity of provisional ballots.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0Florida is already in an automatic \u201cmechanical\u201d recount, where the ballots are run back through the counting machines for both races.\u00a0\u00a0Should the outcome be within 0.25% in either or both races, the ballots that were \u201crejected\u201d by the machines will be examined by hand, to determine if \u201cthe intent\u201d of the voter can be discerned.\u00a0If the examiners can reach a judgment, then that ballot will be added to the total.<\/p>\n
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Every vote counts.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s the \u201cSchool House Rock\u201d version of the American political process; Americans of all races, creeds, religions, gender orientations, and ethnicity; lining up together to \u201cmake their mark\u201d on the ballot.\u00a0\u00a0But we know that traditionally the American electoral process has been fraught with attempts to alter the outcome by illegally changing votes.\u00a0\u00a0The rarely seen $2 bill (with Thomas Jefferson\u2019s face) \u201cearned\u201d it\u2019s unpopularity in the late 1800\u2019s because it was \u201cthe price\u201d of a vote; if you had one, you must have sold your vote.<\/p>\n
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And we had all sorts of obstructions to voting in our history, from the \u201cJim Crow\u201d literacy tests of the past, to the current practices of voter suppression in Georgia, and Kansas, and North Dakota, and other places in the nation.\u00a0\u00a0So it shouldn\u2019t be so much of a surprise that there is \u201coutrage\u201d in Florida that votes are being recounted.\u00a0\u00a0Scott and DeSantis are winning in the current count; counting more votes, particularly in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, both highly Democratic, isn\u2019t going to improve their lead.<\/p>\n
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The Republicans are following the path blazed by Jim Baker, the chairman of the George W Bush 2000 Presidential campaign.\u00a0\u00a0When Florida was declared for Bush by a marginal 500 plus votes; Baker sent teams of lawyers and protestors to do everything they could do disrupt efforts to recount and re-examine ballots.\u00a0\u00a0His theory was simple:\u00a0\u00a0we won on this count, who wants another one?\u00a0\u00a0The Gore team was slow to recognize their opportunity, and so did not hit the ground as quickly, giving Republicans an edge.\u00a0\u00a0When the United States Supreme Court voted along party lines five to four to stop vote counting in Florida, it gave Bush the Presidency.<\/p>\n
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Studies later showed that a full recount would have elected Gore.\u00a0\u00a0But there certainly is a case to be made, both then and now, that hundreds of votes out of multiple millions may well be within the \u201cmargin of error\u201d where the outcome would waver each count.\u00a0\u00a0Put simply, it might be impossible to ascertain the actual outcome by counting.<\/p>\n
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So here we are, back in Democratic strongholds Palm Beach and Ft Lauderdale, where Republicans are claiming \u201cfraud\u201d and \u201cballot creation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Rick Scott has flat out stated that Nelson is trying to \u201cfix\u201d the election, and protestors and lawyers are crowding each other outside of the county election centers.\u00a0\u00a0President Trump has weighed in by twitter, claiming fraud and corruption.<\/p>\n
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It echoes Trump\u2019s claims that the election of 2016 was \u201crigged,\u201d laying the groundwork for not accepting a Clinton win.\u00a0\u00a0He made that very clear in their last debate.\u00a0\u00a0To his and the country\u2019s surprise, he won, so I guess it wasn\u2019t rigged enough.<\/p>\n
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Florida, and Georgia, and Arizona will count and recount the votes.\u00a0\u00a0They will reach a final \u201cfigure\u201d that will determine who wins and loses.\u00a0\u00a0There will be sore losers, and maybe even sore winners.\u00a0\u00a0But, if we can keep the counting process going and not use legal and extra-legal means to stop it, we will eventually find who \u201c\u2026ain\u2019t got the votes\u201d and who does.\u00a0It is the only way to reach an answer that allows the elected to govern with legitimacy.<\/p>\n
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And that\u2019s the point \u2013 faith in the outcomes.\u00a0\u00a0Scott, and Trump, and Kemp in Georgia, are doing everything they can to undermine the legitimacy of the process.\u00a0\u00a0And while they may win by doing that, they are undermining their own ability to govern, shaking citizens faith in government.\u00a0\u00a0They may end up being losers even if they win.<\/p>\n
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