U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker, an Obama-appointed judge, has extended the deadline in order to count votes in two heated Florida political races. Once the votes are tallied, Floridians will official know who their next governor and senator will be.
Judge orders extension of Florida recount
The initial election results were found to be close enough to trigger a recount. The recount was supposed to be wrapped up by today (Thursday, November 15th). But now a judge is extending the deadline, providing more time for heavily-Democrat counties to finish counting ballots.
From the Orlando Sentinel:
A federal court judge on Thursday ruled that thousands of voters whose votes weren’t counted because of issues with their signatures on their mail-in or provisional ballots have two more days to challenge the decision to reject their votes.
The order from U.S. District Court judge Mark Walker came hours before a 3 p.m. deadline for counties to report the results of a machine recount for the U.S. Senate, governor and agriculture commissioner contests, throwing more uncertainty over a process that faces a spate of legal challenges.
Judge gives Florida voters until Saturday to correct signature problems in election recount https://t.co/7bX3c0vxb5 pic.twitter.com/JtyzEVXnm6
— Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) November 15, 2018
The amount of these problematic mail-in ballots is relatively small. From the report: “According to state data presented during a five-hour hearing Wednesday, with 47 of the 67 counties reporting, there were 3,781 ballots rejected for mismatched signatures, including 467 in Orange County.”
Peter Doocy from Fox News reports:
Rick Scott, the Republican who initially won on election day, is appealing the decision, calling it “baseless.”
Why a recount deadline extension hurts Republicans
The judge’s order is unfortunate for both presumed Governor-elect Ron DeSantis and presumed Senator-elect Rick Scott. This deadline extension provides even more time for Democrats to “discover” more votes. As Fox News reporter Doug McKelway tells Bret Baier, Republicans fear the deadline extension will give “more time…for more irregularities to surface.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwGU3gkSWRs
Extending the deadline isn’t fair to other Floridians
And just as a general matter, the judge’s decision simply isn’t fair. The greater majority of Floridians cast their ballots the correct way. Making a special exemption for inept voters who can’t follow basic instructions isn’t fair to people can. Nearly every other county in Florida completed its recount in a reasonable amount of time. Why can’t these blue counties get their act together?
