Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced at a news conference this morning that he is looking to open a statewide office tasked with investigating and prosecuting election crimes.
This comes as more evidence continues to emerge in other key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin about potential illegal activity related to ballot harvesting and other voter irregularities.
Although slow moving, we still have the ongoing saga in Arizona, as a court will decide whether to hold the state Senate in CONTEMPT for failing to hand over evidence to Cyber Ninjas.
That decision will be made on December 2nd (via Yahoo)
As usual this morning, Governor DeSantis was on FIRE!
Ron DeSantis @GovRonDeSantis calls the Biden Administration the "Brandon Administration" pic.twitter.com/hQc7xsiiBU
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 3, 2021
The announcement caused the crowd to go absolutely bonkers and as expected, a Let’s Go Brandon! chant broke out. Which is already triggering the left!
People chanting “Let’s Go Brandon” at Gov. DeSantis @GovRonDeSantis Election Integrity press conference.
Footage by: @XStrategiesLLC pic.twitter.com/7VCloY8KTN
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 3, 2021
.@GovRonDeSantis appearing to yell “Stop, stop, stop” at a heckler at his election integrity rally. Hard to hear over the anti-hecklers
— Renzo Downey (@RenzoDowney) November 3, 2021
Tampa Bay news outlet WTSP covered the story of the event in West Palm Beach:
Gov. Ron DeSantis says he’s going to “strengthen the integrity” of future elections during the upcoming legislative session by creating an office to crack down on election crime.
During a speech Wednesday in West Palm Beach, DeSantis stated some of his plans for the special legislative session he called.
Florida has already seen a rigorous election restrictions bill as a result of the last legislative session, but DeSantis promises another package to “strengthen the integrity” of elections is forthcoming.
The latest election restrictions bill banned ballot harvesting, required voter ID for absentee ballots and restricted drop box use for early voting.
“I don’t think we should have drop boxes, to be honest with you,” DeSantis said Wednesday.
Although he has repeatedly claimed “big tech” interfered with free speech during the 2020 election, DeSantis has previously touted Florida had “the most transparent and efficient election anywhere in the country.”
Still, DeSantis is adamant elections in the Sunshine State need to be even more secure.
DeSantis says he plans to create a separate office solely dedicated to “investigating and prosecuting” election crime. And, he says the state plans to make “ballot harvesting” a felony rather than a misdemeanor.
DeSantis also proposed the need to “clean up” voter databases in Florida after a certain number of years, alluding to the potential of voter fraud via mail-in ballots.
Research from both sides of the political aisle reveals voter fraud is statistically rare.
A 18-month investigation of assertions of 2018 voter fraud in Florida concluded in 2020. As the New York Times notes, the probe found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. While an elections supervisor in Republican-dominated Bay County counted 12 votes submitted via email, the Times said prosecutors determined they didn’t have enough evidence to make a case.
The Heritage Foundation, a well-known conservative think tank, tracks election fraud cases on its website. It listed only six individual examples in 2018, and none from years since.
The generally-progressive Brennan Center for Justice releases reports on voter fraud, which have revealed most reported incidents are actually traceable to other problems like clerical errors or bad data matching. One report found incident rates of voter fraud were somewhere between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent nationwide.
Here in Florida, as in elsewhere across the country, misinformation about the 2020 presidential race has those who help run elections more so concerned about the future.
Prior to Election Day 2021, Florida’s Republican and Democratic elections supervisors sent a united message to candidates and officials: “Tone down the rhetoric and stand up for our democracy.”
This is fantastic news for Florida residents as our election systems need help now more than ever.
While DeSantis is doing this locally in his state, I still wish more was done federally. I really hope this is a leading policy initiative when we get to Trump 2.0.
On the other hand, this comes as yet another punch to the kidneys for Democrats, who are still reeling from big time failures across the board in last night’s elections.
When Biden wakes up tomorrow afternoon, somebody’s gonna have to tell him he’s now officially presiding over the collapse of the Democrat party
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 3, 2021
Let’s Go Brandon!
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