De-legitimizing Elections: "Rampant Fraud" in Florida

"I will not stand idly by while unethical liberals try to steal an election."

                                                      Rick Scott, GOP Governor of Florida

Americans don't need Russians to make us doubt the integrity of our own democracy. We do it to ourselves.

Both the governor race and senate race in Florida are near dead even. Votes are still being validated and, as in year 2000, the last to be counted and the ones most contentious are in the counties of Florida's southeast coast, Broward and Miami-Dade.

The first counts showed Republican Rick Scott ahead in the race for Senator and Republican Ron DeSantis ahead for Governor. The problem is that the slow to count ballots are in areas that typically vote Democratic. The fewer votes counted in those counties, the more likely the leads will hold. 

The immediate response by senior Republicans in Florida was an accusation of vote fraud. Don't count the votes. Senator Marco Rubio began tweeting that the slow count "isn't just annoying incompetence" but rather an invitation for "lawyers to come here and try to steal a seat in the U.S. Senate." He said they are trying to "change the results of [the] election.

Rick Scott calls it "rampant fraud."

People didn't notice one race

What happened?  Once again, there is a history of human stupidity at work, and once again ballot design is a factor. The Broward County ballot had an odd design, with the place to mark the U.S. Senate race at the bottom of a long instruction area rather than at the top of the area for candidates. The result is that apparently an unusual number of voters "under-voted," i.e. came to the polls and voted but left that race blank. Undervotes are common in races for uncontested elections for little known candidates for minor offices, but not on the highly contested race at the top of the ticket--or in this case at the bottom of the instruction area.

The undervotes raise suspicion, and doubt about our elections.

Voter incompetence is an issue. Apparently filling in bubbles confounds some people and voters instead draw circles around the name of one candidate in a race, or draw arrows that point to that candidate's name. There is presumed voter intent--the voter marked a choice--but it was marked irregularly. That triggers an action of discretion by the election officials, to conclude that a circled name is the same intent as a filled bubble. Anytime there is election department discretion there is opportunity for fraud. More suspicion.

Hypocrisy becomes blatant. Since the ballots in Broward County are presumed to be more likely from Democrats than Republicans, politicians on both sides argue on the basis of high principle what is in fact an argument from self interest. Those irregular ballots must not be counted, say Republicans. The law shows clear voter intent should be honored, and if it takes longer to count them, so be it, count all the votes, say Democrats.

Meanwhile, the news is full of senior politicians saying the vote is fraudulent and the system is rigged. But what voters see is posturing. 

Oh, heck with it. Highly politically motivated people read about the Florida election and their response is frustration and angry dismay. Elections are important, and we are messing them up. But less motivated, less politically involved, people would have another natural response, one of dismissal.  Voting is a hassle, the votes might not be counted, the people who run the game are idiots, and the whole thing is rigged, per both the news media and the senior elected officials of the state.

Fox suggest fraud: ballots "found."

A thought experiment:

Imagine how sports fans would feel if they watched a game and there were accusations of flagrant missed calls and wrong calls by the officials, with the senior public officials representing each team calling the game fraudulent, and lawsuits being filed throughout the game. Imagine, too, that, at the end of the game there were a week or two of reviews by re-play officials who were widely accused of being partisans for one side or the others, and in the end the game was decided in a courtroom rather than on the field. Surely fans would lose interest. They would realize they were watching a show, something fake, something rigged, a version of a Globetrotters exhibition but without the humor.

We hack our own elections.