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.
Indeed, the first choice for the voters is below the BALLOT INSTRUCTIONS in the left column. Clearly, the format is intended to be read left-to-right, column-style (like a Scantron test answer sheet, for example).
My ballot in north Texas looked very similar. I had no problem finding all the candidates and marking the ballot as I wished. These people really don't care how stupid they look, as long as they can stir up trouble.
Yep. And in all the trials with thousands of elementary school kids, none made the alleged mistake.
I don’t see anything wrong with the ballot either.
But people are soooooo stupid.
Early votes have to be stored. At that point anything can happen. In the Fla and Az early voting Reps were up for the first time in forever. How has that worked out. NY does not have early voting. Why is it necessary? Additionally, early voting results in votes people might want back. If you vote for X on Oct 5 and on Oct 23 it is revealed he lied about his military service, you are stuck with that vote. If there is genuine need to be away or unavailable on election day then that is what absentee ballots are for.
And actually Dems should be also be opposed. Early voting was rare in 2000. Had there been then W likely wins without any argument as he was up 5 points in the polls and then six days before election his DWI hits the headlines.
Boy i’ve been around for 20 years and don’t remember seeing your name.
Hi :)
And yeah COME ON, I imagined it SO MUCH worse.
They blew it by posting it.
You’re right.
And like someone else said, how did it NOT disenfranchise R voters?
Are they saying R voters are smarter?
Are they saying they KNEW how those people who didn’t get it were gonna vote?
Too stupid.
What kind of GD idiot would forget about one of the two most important races on the ballot? Answer: Someone who should not be allowed to vote in the first place.
LOL!!! I see your imagination ran wilder than mine!! My husband isn’t going to believe it, haaa!
:)
That is not a “weird placement”.
There are 3 columns. YOu go down the first column, then you go down the second column, then you go down the 3rd column.
Why would anybody think to start in the second column, and why woudl they be surprised to find there was stuff in teh first column?
I mean, I understand how ill-informed, ignorant voters obviously MADE this mistake.
But nobody should suggest that this is a “butterfly ballot” type of thing.
Excellent point
Doesn’t look that confusing to me.
‘Another point is that, are they saying the GOP voters could find that box, but the Dem voters could not?’
no, he’s merely commenting on the discrepancy in the number of votes in Broward for governor compared to US senator; a fair point, as one would expect a politically aware individual to vote on both of these high profile positions...but they didn’t...
It will be delicious when Rick Scott finally is declared the winner and Brenda Snipes merry band of incompetents helped.
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