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Group Sues to Demand Florida Election Recount
The Miami New Times ^ | December 5, 2016 | Jerry Iannelli

Posted on 12/05/2016 11:03:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Protect Our Elections, a liberal-leaning group based in Washington, D.C., says more than 160,000 votes in Florida weren't counted during last month's presidential election. The group claims each of those votes matters a great deal because Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 112,911 votes in the Sunshine State. Trump won by roughly 1.5 percent, a margin high enough to avoid the state's automatic-recount provisions.

But last Friday, Protect Our Elections sued the state to contest the election, possibly throwing President-elect Trump's transition into an even greater state of turmoil.

For the past 30 days, failed Green Party candidate Jill Stein has launched a much-ballyhooed (but perfectly legal) attempt to recount votes in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, forcing the country to grapple with the question of exactly how hackable our election system really is. But despite how crucial Florida's 29 Electoral College votes are to the election, nobody has thrown Florida's election results under the microscope until now.

After raising more than $65,000 online, Protect Our Elections sued to contest the election at 11:48 p.m. Friday, a scant 12 minutes before the state's election-lawsuit deadline. The group claims — citing what looks to be extremely shaky evidence — the vote totals do not include "tens of thousands" of legal votes that weren't counted because of alleged vote-machine malfunctions, but do include "tens of thousands of illegal votes that were improperly counted."

In addition, the lawsuit claims that at least 25,000 mail-in ballots were requested but never received in Broward County, that the state's voting machines could have been hacked, and that Florida this year posted an "abnormally high invalid vote rate."

"The number of uncounted votes, together with the illegal votes and the lack of integrity of the voting machines, is more than sufficient to call in doubt the results of the election," the suit says.

According to state law, any taxpayer in Florida can sue to contest an election, provided he or she files ten days after the state's votes are certified. Three Leon County residents — Leonisia Olivares, Jerry W. Lapidus, and Judith L. Craig — sued Friday in Leon County Court.

In Florida, the mere mention of the word "recount" triggers epileptic shock in anyone over the age of 30. In 2000, the state was the sight of the most notorious presidential recount in American history: After improperly stamped paper ballots caused scanner errors, the entire election was thrown into disarray and famously ended only after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively declared George W. Bush the winner.

But while Broward County's "hanging chads" in 2000 rightfully held up the most important election in the developed world, Protect Our Elections' lawsuit is a bit more dubious. The group is suing Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, state Attorney General Pam Bondi, and a host of election officials, claiming there is "massive evidence of electronic voting machine malfunctioning."

The group claims the Diebold and Dominion voting machines the state uses are highly susceptible to hacking. Though that claim is certainly true, Protect Our Elections' lawsuit provides no evidence that Florida's 2016 election was hacked. The suit instead claims that, because predictive models said Clinton would win handily, Trump's win is suspicious enough to demand the state double-check the results.

However, the group points to a 233 percent jump in the number of uncounted ballots as evidence that something strange may have happened. According to the suit, 0.75 percent of the statewide votes were deemed "invalid" in the 2008 and 2012 elections. This year, 1.67 percent of the votes were invalidated.

"Excessively high invalid vote rates are extremely suspicious, and generally are considered an indication of possible problems such as machine malfunctions or tampering," the suit alleges.


TOPICS: Florida; Campaign News; State and Local
KEYWORDS: election; florida; hillary; recount; trump
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To: pepsionice
One does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the simple strategy here. Toss in the 2020 Census coming up, and the number of states which will be virtually guaranteed to stay Republican-dominated...this gimmick would seem to be an awful stupid strategy for the Democratic Party.

Unless the strategy is to further Obama's fundamental transformation of the country by seriously damaging another institution in the same manner as has been done with the police, the military, and gender.

21 posted on 12/06/2016 1:27:27 AM PST by Dahoser (Separation of church and state? No, we need separation of media and state.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

U stole my pic! LOL


22 posted on 12/06/2016 2:21:50 AM PST by patriot08 (5th generation Texan-(girl type) Thrilled we won! Donald will give us our country back!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Can’t wait until President Trump investigates the elections in California, New York, and Illinois.
23 posted on 12/06/2016 4:12:49 AM PST by keving (We get the government to vote)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
On another thread, a legal expert said this case was a non-starter, that yesterday the State Board of Elections had been given 10 business days to file a response and they can (and most likely will) just run out the clock and the electoral votes will have already been cast before they even respond to the lawsuit, at which point their response will be, “The point is moot, the electoral college has already voted.”
24 posted on 12/06/2016 4:31:02 AM PST by apillar
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To: Pinkbell
It's called...

"PROJECTION".

25 posted on 12/06/2016 4:33:11 AM PST by rlmorel (Orwell described Liberals when he wrote of those who "repudiate morality while laying claim to it.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I am raising money to do a recount on the 2008 election to prevent Obama from ever becoming president...


26 posted on 12/06/2016 4:38:36 AM PST by Trump-a-licious
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To: WildHighlander57

Since they lost with Clintoon, they will be doing this bs for the next 8 years.


27 posted on 12/06/2016 7:18:04 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Hey, whining losers,Trump will just go ahead & make things better for us without you!!!!")
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To: apillar

10 business days from today is Dec 19th.

What are the rules in other states; I think time has run out on challenges, correct?

(Need link to that thread where you saw the “10 business days”)


28 posted on 12/06/2016 7:50:08 AM PST by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57, returning after lurking since 2000)
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To: WildHighlander57
I got my information from this story:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/12/05/florida-voters-sue-recount/95021946/

About half way down the story is this quote:

But even lawyers for the plantiffs acknowledge time isn't on their side. Clint Curtis, an Orlando attorney representing the plantiffs, said the defendants may not respond by the time the Electoral College meets on December 19th.
"They can ignore it entirely," He said.

As specifically for the "10 business days" someone had asked for clarification in the comments on why the State didn't have to respond by December 19th, and several responses said that Florida law states they have 10 business days to file a response.

29 posted on 12/06/2016 8:07:49 AM PST by apillar
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To: apillar

Thank you very much for this info!

Have it ready for posting on the Florida recount threads.

Yes, Florida can run out the clock.


30 posted on 12/06/2016 8:17:40 AM PST by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57, returning after lurking since 2000)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

You see, originally HILLARY CLINTON most likely EXPECTED
there to be enough MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD in her favor that
she could tie up the results and NEVER have to concede.
That way, it could have been a redux of the GORE insanity
enough so that HILLARY would eventually be declared the
“winner by default” - also enough more “votes” could have
been “discovered” in the trunks of cars, ALL for Hillary,
of course to “pad” her “win”.


31 posted on 12/06/2016 8:41:41 AM PST by Twinkie (John 3:16)
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