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Florida AG Rips FDLE Over Elections Investigation
November 12, 2018
In an unusual move, Attorney General Pam Bondi on Sunday publicly criticized Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen for not pursuing an investigation into alleged irregularities in the handling of election ballots in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Bondi’s office released a two-page letter rooted, at least in part, in Gov. Rick Scott’s controversial statement Thursday night that he was asking the FDLE to investigate irregularities. Scott is locked in a fierce election battle to try to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, while also teaming with Bondi and other members of the state Cabinet to oversee the FDLE.
An FDLE spokeswoman said Friday that the agency was working with the Florida Department of State “and will investigate any allegations of criminal activity or fraud. We do not have an active investigation at this point.”
Bondi wrote in her letter Sunday to Swearingen that she was “deeply troubled” and that his “duty is not limited to investigating allegations made by the secretary of state.” She also said FDLE had pointed to a lack of a written complaint in deciding not to pursue an investigation.
“I fail to see how the Florida Department of Law Enforcement can legitimately refuse to investigate where there is reasonable suspicion that may lead to the discovery of criminal actions in the conduct of the 2018 election — actions that gravely damage Floridians’ confidence in our electoral process and democracy,” Bondi’s letter said.
An FDLE spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email Sunday seeking comment.
Scott drew criticism from Democrats after he said he was asking FDLE to investigate the actions of Broward and Palm Beach officials in an election that will determine his political future. Marc Elias, an attorney for Nelson, said Florida is “not a Third World dictatorship.”
Bondi’s letter Sunday came a day after Secretary of State Ken Detzner formally ordered statewide recounts in the races for U.S. senator, governor and agriculture commissioner. The margins in each of the races tightened by tens of thousands of votes as elections officials continued counting ballots after Tuesday night’s initial results.
Republicans, led by Scott’s campaign, have filed a series of lawsuits and argued that election fraud has occurred in Democrat-heavy Broward and Palm Beach counties. Democrats, meanwhile, have contended that Republicans are trying to prevent every vote from being counted and say allegations of fraud are baseless.
Bondi also sent a letter Sunday to Detzner requesting that he report any “suspicion of criminal activity” to FDLE, the statewide prosecutor and a state attorney. The statewide prosecutor works for Bondi.
Meanwhile, Scott’s campaign filed lawsuits in Broward and Palm Beach counties seeking orders for the county sheriff’s offices and the FDLE to impound voting machines, tallying devices and ballots when they are not being used.
Scott led Nelson by fewer than 14,000 votes in unofficial results Saturday, out of nearly 8.2 million votes cast. Counties face a 3 p.m. Thursday deadline for reporting the results of “machine” recounts to the state. At that point, races with margins of .25 percent or less will go to manual, or “hand,” recounts.
Sarah Revell, a Detzner spokeswoman, said Sunday that Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher has indicated her county might not be able to meet the Thursday machine-recount deadline because of the age of the county’s equipment.
“The deadlines for submitting the results of the recount are laid out in Florida law and the law does not give the secretary of state any authority to grant extensions,” Revell said in an email. “Florida law clearly states that if a county does not submit their results by the deadline then the results on file at that time take their place.”
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Comments
13 Responses to “Florida AG Rips FDLE Over Elections Investigation”
Regarding making duplicates (and most of the general procedures):
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0101/0101.html
101.5614 Canvass of returns.—(4)(a) If any vote-by-mail ballot is physically damaged so that it cannot properly be counted by the automatic tabulating equipment, a true duplicate copy shall be made of the damaged ballot in the presence of witnesses and substituted for the damaged ballot. Likewise, a duplicate ballot shall be made of a vote-by-mail ballot containing an overvoted race or a marked vote-by-mail ballot in which every race is undervoted which shall include all valid votes as determined by the canvassing board based on rules adopted by the division pursuant to s. 102.166(4). All duplicate ballots shall be clearly labeled “duplicate,” bear a serial number which shall be recorded on the defective ballot, and be counted in lieu of the defective ballot. After a ballot has been duplicated, the defective ballot shall be placed in an envelope provided for that purpose, and the duplicate ballot shall be tallied with the other ballots for that precinct.
(b) A true duplicate copy shall be made of each federal write-in absentee ballot in the presence of witnesses and substituted for the federal write-in absentee ballot. The duplicate ballot must include all valid votes as determined by the canvassing board based on rules adopted by the division pursuant to s. 102.166(4). All duplicate ballots shall be clearly labeled “duplicate,” bear a serial number that shall be recorded on the federal write-in absentee ballot, and be counted in lieu of the federal write-in absentee ballot. After a ballot has been duplicated, the federal write-in absentee ballot shall be placed in an envelope provided for that purpose, and the duplicate ballot shall be tallied with other ballots for that precinct.
(By the way, she also had a ballot form which had only the Nelson/Scott vote at the bottom of the first line of instructions and some 25,000 ballots didn’t show any vote there at all. Most likely that many people didn’t notice. Considering the county and the error, those votes would have probably gone to Nelson.
She may well have cost him the election.)
REGARDING:
“Broward county is now in possession of 100,000 More ballots than registered voters, is that reasonable suspicion?”
It would be if it were true. It isn’t.
“Posts making the rounds on social media claim that Broward had 1,167,982 registered voters but 1,284,780 ballots in last week’s election, for 110 percent turnout and clear evidence of fraud. In fact, both numbers are wrong. The county has 1,174,851 registered voters, and a total of 714,859 ballots were cast on election day — making turnout about 61 percent.”
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-election-recount-myths-20181112-story.html
A lie doesn’t become true by saying it over and over.
“But on election night, Broward County alone showed that it had counted about 34,000 less ballots than it was reporting for total turnout. Compared with other counties, that was an unusually high number of mail-in ballots yet to be counted, but it indicated that they were there,”
They just hadn’t been counted yet. The mail-in ballots had to be verified as legitimate and then counted. The supervisor of elections there seems incompetent but not intentionally crooked. She tried to make machine readable copies for example for those which the machines couldn’t read. Shouldn’t have. She tried to keep people out when counting. Shouldn’t have.
Get her for what she did wrong, not for things others made up.
David for truth
Were there more ballots counted then they were registered voters??? How is that possible if there wasn’t faked votes some where…
as a voter by mail how do I know my vote was counted ? No one confirmed.
About David Huie’s comments “Reasonable suspicion”. Broward county is now in possession of 100,000 More ballots than registered voters, is that reasonable suspicion?
Political tomfoolery at its finest. Attorney General Bondi should have scolded FDLE for not investigating Trump University. But that was her job. $25000 donations will speed up the process and make this go away.The laws should be followed by and enforced all Republicans,Democrats, Independents, etc. Trust the process.
Just worth noting; Smiling Bill never made a concession speech because his crystal ball that sees the inner workings of Palm Beach County was assured that Snipes would come through for the Democrat Party one more time.
@David; Snipes has broken several laws during the course of this ballot count, including standing in the door and not allowing any impartial monitors in to watch the count. This in itself is a serious violation of Fl. law, and should be enough “reasonable suspicion” to warrant a complete investigation. When you add this to the fact that ballots keep “showing up” well after the statutory Tuesday deadline for ballots to be tallied and counted. Then you have the admission that invalid ballots were mixed with valid ones and run through the tally machine. It looks like the intention was to keep counting and finding or generating new ballots until both Scott and DeSantis lost. Why would anybody that is above reproach not be encouraging a thorough investigation?
FaithinUS, you have got to be kidding or you are very delusional to think that the Republican party is the party trying to “steal votes”. The count went down correctly to the Republican Senate and Governor winning these seats on last Tuesday night and it was the Democrats squealing like pigs because they lost. Just like Hillary did! You are right.. the Constitution did give me my right to vote and I did! Now it seems that my vote will be stolen by cheating democrats that cry when they lose! The Democrat Party has become so Socialistic and demeaning in the last ten or so years that it scares me for my grandchildren. I was a Democrat for forty years but I changed parties because of the corruption and abuse to our nation that this democrat party was bringing. I know I won’t change any minds or hearts to see this damage the way I do, but neither will you change mine. Been there, done that! May God take control and lead us in the right path!!
Just. WOW. After Rick Scott used his “own money” (pilfered from US taxpayers while leading a healthcare services company before he was somehow elected governor) to buy this Senate seat, he’s highly miffed that the VOTERS of Florida aren’t exactly cool with that.
What has become of the Republican party that they fight so hard to keep voters from choosing our leaders? It’s right there in the Preamble to the Constitution- “.. of the People by the People and for the People”!!
David, I am not a Lawyer, but Facts… State law requires all ballot totals be reported in 30 minutes of polls closing, but they did not???
REGARDING:
“I fail to see how the Florida Department of Law Enforcement can legitimately refuse to investigate where there is reasonable suspicion that may lead to the discovery of criminal actions in the conduct of the 2018 election”
Maybe the problem lies with the word requiring REASONABLE suspicion. Governor Scott sent observers in to look for irregularities during the whole thing and they reported seeing nothing wrong with what was being done. Reasonable suspicion does not mean “everything didn’t go my way.” Rumors aren’t reasonable suspicion. Even Presidential tweets aren’t reasonable suspicion.
Real charges of observed misbehavior might be reasonable suspicion if the observer is reliable and willing to testify.
David for truth