The post-election perfunctory clarion call for “unity” by the victors and defeated alike has been sounded. But, not so fast. Their call for “unity” should fall hard on the ears of thinking conservative residents of Palm Beach and Broward counties. The time for “unity” was when Senator Marco Rubio raised the question of the propriety of the behavior of election officials. But, that didn’t happen. We are all voters. We all have an interest in the integrity of the process. Right? I had always thought so. But, now I’m pretty certain that nothing could be further from the truth. The “call” should be for a full investigation. The “call” should be for full accountability to the voter.
This shameful moment in public life should not pass (again) without full accountability for what we’ve seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears. The voters are entitled to at least that much. Voters should make that moment a condition precedent to future votes or as a basis for the civil disobedience that should follow should law enforcement fail to fulfill its Constitutional obligations. We cannot … should not … and as far as this voter is concerned … will not move on until there has been a proper accounting for the behavior of the Supervisors of Elections and election office employees in both counties. There needs to be a reconciliation of: the images of ballots being transported in private vehicles; 90,000 plus “found” ballots; invalid ballots mixed with valid ballots; lost ballots; exclusion of the public from public proceedings; exclusion of the press public proceedings; profligate ballot chain of custody violations; loss and/or abandonment of elections materials; loss and/or abandonment of ballots; the insufficiency, improper maintenance and malfunction of voting machinery; dysfunction of public workers and officials; elections workers working to contract and missing deadlines; elections workers being given days off and not working at all (notwithstanding emergent circumstances); improper and intentionally misleading alteration of election materials; improper alteration of ballots; improper reproduction of executed ballots; improper exclusion of valid ballots; improper enlargement of time for submission of absentee ballots; and failure to comply with the anti-fraud provisions of Florida election laws despite court orders compelling it … to name a “few”.
No. This is not the time for “unity”. This is the time for investigation, full disclosure and aggressive prosecution. The Attorney General and Florida Department of Law Enforcement should procure a court order to seize and secure the Elections office premises and property enjoining all employees taking any action that would violate those rules concerning the preservation of evidence and preclude the Supervisors from entering the premises and destroying, hiding, or altering county records. Enough. It should end here. But, it won't.
You can count on it.