Broward County, Florida, Center of Recount Turmoil. Again.

What’s the story?

• Florida, once again, is at the center of an electoral hullabaloo. And, once again, it’s because of a race too close to call. According to unofficial results posted on the Florida Department of State website, at 8 p.m. Eastern on Friday, Nov. 9, Republican Gov. Rick Scott led Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by 14,848 votes.
• Scott is suing Broward County's supervisor of elections, accusing officials of withholding information on the number of outstanding ballots in the Senate race.

“Every Floridian should be concerned there may be rampant fraud happening in Palm Beach and Broward counties,” Scott said. “I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the people of Florida.”

• As the Washington Post explains, “Broward is Florida’s biggest Democratic stronghold, meaning the county is a convenient punching bag for Florida’s GOP as well as outsider candidates hoping to take on the mainstream Democratic Party. And with the country’s election process again under siege, Broward’s track record is once more of national significance.”

Broward’s reputation

• The county isn’t a stranger to election-night chaos: its “hanging chads” played a major role in the 2000 presidential election. In Bush v. Gore, a divided Supreme Court ruled that Florida's court-ordered manual recount of ballots in the 2000 presidential election was unconstitutional, giving the presidency to George W. Bush.
• “Years of problems have only slapped additional coats of paint on the county’s sordid reputation as a black hole for ballots,” the Post writes. “Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes, the target of Scott’s legal action, has been accused in recent years of illegally destroying ballots and mismanagement.”
• “They are the Keystone Kops of elections,” a conservative election attorney told Politico in 2017. “It’s complete incompetence.”

Additional Broward snafus, as reported by the Post:

• Heading into the 2004 presidential election, “Snipes blamed the U.S. Postal Service for losing 58,000 absentee ballots, then later announced that only 6,000 ballots had disappeared.”
• On the Saturday before the election, Snipe’s office dropped 2,400 absentee ballots off at the post official—after mail carriers were already gone for the day.
• In 2016, Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz faced a primary challenge by Tim Canova in Florida’s 23rd District. Canova sued Broward elections officials and asked to inspect the physical ballots in the race. But “Snipes’s office destroyed the physical originals while saving digital copies as the lawsuit was pending — a violation of a federal statute requiring congressional ballots be saved for 22 months after an election.”
• That same year, “the Republican Party also sued Broward over how the county opened absentee ballots after observing officials at work in 2016.” A judge ruled that Broward election officials could no longer open the ballots in secret—or before a three-member panel decided on their validity.

Why does it matter?

• Florida election officials have until Saturday to tally votes and determine whether the 2018 Senate and gubernatorial races will head to a recount.
• “But Snipes on Thursday fueled the latest Broward controversy — and conspiracy theories — when she failed to explain how long her office’s count would take,” the Post explained.
• On Friday, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted "What’s happening in #Broward should concern every American."

What do you think?

• Critics have pounced on Broward County’s troubled election history—are you pouncing, too? Are you concerned about the legitimacy of the Florida recount? Should all states follow the same voting laws? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman