Posted on 11/12/2018 8:55:09 AM PST by Kaslin
As a registered Republican in infamous Broward County, Florida, this writer offers two salient points regarding the ongoing recount controversy that will determine if Governor Rick Scott will become Senator Rick Scott. As of this writing, Scott is leading incumbent Senator Bill Nelson by less than 13,000 votes — a 0.15 point margin out of over eight million votes cast.
My first point is about ballot design and the second is math.
Over two weeks before Election Day I voted at my kitchen table along with over 2.6 million other Floridians who chose to vote by mail.
The ballot was five pages long. Starting on the first page in the middle column, one had the opportunity to vote for Governor, Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer, Commissioner of Agriculture, State Senator and State Representative.
After I voted for Commissioner of Agriculture, already three quarters down the long column, my eyes happened to shift to the left, and there I saw the names of U.S. Senate candidates Rick Scott and Bill Nelson.
For a nanosecond, I remember thinking that was weird placement. Furthermore, if I had been in a rush, it is entirely plausible that I could have missed the senate voting square because voting instructions in three languages comprised over half of the first column then followed by the senate and congressional voting blocks.
Fast forward to last Wednesday when the design of Broward’s ballot first made national headlines. It turned out that there were more votes cast for Chief Financial Officer than U.S. Senator.
According to the most recent voter statistics listed by Broward County’s Supervisor of Elections there are 1,174,851 registered voters.
And, when writing this piece I just noticed a discrepancy. The home page of the Broward Supervisor of Elections displays 1,182,120 registered voters, a difference of 7,269. Alert the media.
The total number of votes cast in the midterm election for the key offices are as follows:
U.S. Senate: 683,963
Governor: 708,955
Attorney General: 697,915
Chief Financial Officer: 692,970
Simple math indicates that 24,992 more Broward County voters cast ballots for governor than senator.
The Supervisor of Elections also shows that Bill Nelson received 68.9 percent of the votes compared to 30.87 percent for Rick Scott. (Not surprising given that in Florida’s second largest county, election officials are not sure if there are 1,182,120 registered voters. But if so, that includes 593,505 Democrats, 252,005 Republicans, 328,822 unaffiliated and 7,788 other.)
But here is the kicker: If those 24,992 Broward voters who voted for governor had also voted for senator, conceivably 68.9 percent of them would have voted for Nelson the Democrat. Thus, Nelson could have won 17,219 additional votes — over 4,000 more than the 13,000 by which he trails Scott going into the recount. Yikes, THAT is inconvenient math!
It is yet to be determined if the 24,992 “undervote” was a “machine calibration” issue which will be resolved in the recount or poor design is the culprit. However, I distinctly remember that nanosecond when I thought the ballot design was counterintuitive, and initially missed the Senate voting square. Thus, I believe 24,992 Broward voters could have been “disenfranchised” from voting for a U.S. Senate candidate and that I was almost one of them!
If and hopefully, when, Senator-elect Rick Scott emerges victorious from the statewide recount, and if it’s with a slim margin, he can thank the incompetent ballot design by overwhelmingly Democratic Broward County election officials for his new title.
Step one... end mail in and early voting, except legitimate absentees.
Step two... return to mechanical machines and voting roll books requiring real signatures.Lock and secure machines within 15 minutes of the last voter’s use.
Step three... end provisional ballots. If a person is not listed on an election district’s rolls...tuff! suffa!
The infamous "Butterfly Ballot"
There are a lot of people voting who have no business voting.
Given the author’s second point was math, he or she could have at least done it honestly.
Let’s go with the 25,000 undervotes. 70% to Nelson is indeed 17,500 but ignores the 7,500 Scott would have gotten. Precinct level analysis could possibly yield a more precise answer (not going “there” in terms of which side of the electorate would be more apt to screw up) but in all likelihood Nelson would still have lost.
Bingo!!!!
Glad I saw the ballot picture as I had let my thoughts run wild on what it looked like.
Democrats need individual everything to make all come out their way!!!!!!!!!
lol
I figured it was in 2 point font in the bottom corner in Swahili :)
I still feel so sad about all those disenfranchised Holocaust survivors who were too stupid to read a ballot. /s Sheldon.
The writer is wrong on many counts...First off the ballot was six pages long both sides in many areas....There are exactly 30 cities in all of Broward County which is 1,323 sq miles of land and water.61.13% of the registered voters bothered to vote at all. Per SOE where I work.Besides the folks running for jobs there were 14 Constitutional changes and 12 County changes to its constitution all included on the ballot designed by the Supervisor of elections thats dumb. If all who voted did so thru a as200 ballot Scanner that amounts to 4,277,040 pieces of paper. Each Pct at close does a computer run n 2 copies 1 to driver who picks up the equipment and the second carried by the Clerk of the PCT is there private car with seals attached on all bags 4-8 bags per pct.....Well I shall enlighten you this election as of the last announcement 712,840 people voted in Broward County at six (6) pages both sides that amounts to 4 million,277 thousand and forty pages of ballot form....in a county of 1, 843,152 people.....of which 593,540 are registered democrats, 252 thousand and twenty three are registered Republicans and three hundred twenty eight thousand eight hundred and sixty eight no party affiliation,,,,,,,,the people count who voted were increased by close to 50% overall...AND YOU DO REALIZE THERE ARE 608 Polling Locations in Broward County....an all cites had questions on the ballotts that were for that city alone....so as you can see this is a huge undertaking....
UNDERVOTE IS A B.S. TERM - YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO FILL OUT AN ENTIRE BALLOT!
Does anyone else have questions about probability in regards to the razor-thin margins being reported? It doesn’t seem possible.
You need to ratchet that cynicism up a notch. They are unspecific as to genitalia now. You would have added that a few years ago.
LOL. What a joke! It’s hard to see the spot to vote for senator? Laughable! Then I must be a frigging genius because I’ve seen and voted easily from many ballots like that. Idiots! Let’s keep dumbing down our country for a bunch of morons.
“because voting instructions in three languages”
OK, ENGLISH
SPANISH
????
And some guy DID recently sue to have his age of 68 changed to 45.
I THINK those were the ages. If i’m wrong, only a few years in either direction.
He lost, but the time will come when a case like that will win.
Thought it would wreak havoc on getting SS :)
Maybe we need coloring book ballots that you can take home for a week :)
Truth is an awful lot of people are really dumb.
LOL. Either you know how to read or your don’t.
Of course it’s nuts. He is willing to for go his pension. It would help SS.
Why do people keep blaming this on early voting? Early voting has nothing to do with it. This is a scam perpetrated through the use of absentee and provisional ballots.
My chad is still hanging from the 2000 erection....errrrrr....election....
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