Florida Republican candidate Matthew Caldwell is blaming his recent loss for the position of Agriculture Commissioner on incompetence from Broward County after losing by a razor-thin margin of 0.06%. Not only did he lose by a slim margin, but he had also initially been ahead by 40,000 votes on election day, before new votes mysteriously began tricking in on the days that followed. Caldwell is alleging fraud – and he’s filed a lawsuit based on that allegation against Broward County.
Caldwell alleges that ballots were cast past the 7PM deadline, and thus should’ve been voided (but likely went towards his opponent).
According to Politico:
“Former Sen. George LeMieux, representing Republican candidate for agriculture commissioner Matt Caldwell in a lawsuit challenging Broward County vote-counting, told a state judge Thursday that 6,873 votes were logged at the county’s supervisor of elections office after the 7 p.m. poll closing time the night of the Nov. 6 election. Caldwell, a former state representative, lost the lead to Democrat Nikki Fried two days after he declared victory on election night. And after a machine recount was completed on Thursday, Fried led by 5,307 votes, or 0.06 percent.”
So thanks to Snipes, Caldwell went from winning to losing by a razor thin 0.06%. It’s been twelve years since a Democrat won a seat in the Florida Cabinet, and the circumstances couldn’t be murkier. Due to the context of Caldwell’s win-turned-loss, he filed suit on November 9th and filed an amended complaint on the 11th which highlighted Snipes’ past misconduct. Caldwell is also suing for all public records relevant to the vote count.
Caldwell’s lawsuit alleges that 6,873 votes were logged after the 7pm poll closing time on election day, meaning they were fraudulently submitted and counted. Since Caldwell lost in the 11th hour by a minuscule 0.06%, below the 0.25% threshold to trigger a recount, Secretary of State Ken Detzner has ordered one. Caldwell had previously declared victory on election day when he was ahead by 40,000 votes. Note that 6,873 illegitimate votes is greater than the margin by which Caldwell lost by.
Just one of Brenda Snipes’ victims
Ironically, Caldwell is probably the last person you’ve heard of when it comes to the election shenanigans in Florida. Senator-to-be Rick Scott filed suit against Snipes (and Palm Beach’s supervisor of elections), as his Senate victory wasn’t clear due to her incompetence. In the governor’s race, Democrat Andrew Gillum withdrew his concession to Republican Ron DeSantis, and a recount netted Gillum only one additional vote.
Despite that, Gillum still refuses to concede (much like Stacy Abrams in Georgia). How many more times to Democrats want to lose the same election? Thus far, every recount in Florida has only aided Republicans, so it’s no wonder that Florida Democrats are seriously arguing that the votes of non-citizens should be counted. Caldwell could be the latest to benefit from a recount, and if he does end up winning (again), it’ll shine a spotlight on voter fraud in Florida that can’t be ignored.
