Disclaimer: This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
Arizona is once again facing scrutiny regarding elections. It wasn’t until the next day, August 5th, that results were declared. Kari Lake won for the GOP ticket and will face off against Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Meanwhile, in Florida, Ron DeSantis takes a few shots at Arizona and the rest of the country for their inabilities for ballot counting.
RSBN reported:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) slammed ballot counting processes in states like Arizona during a Thursday press conference in Hillsborough County.
“…You look around the country… they’ve been doing these elections in different parts this year – you have an election, and then you have votes coming in for days and days, and people don’t even know how many votes are out – it takes them forever to count,” DeSantis stated.
DeSantis added fuel to a growing fire regarding the Arizona election. People like Ron DeSantis and Kari Lake have stated that it shouldn’t take days to declare a winner.
AZ Central reported:
Widely shared Twitter posts this week called the delayed results “corrupt” and “unacceptable,” while Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in a press conference on Wednesday said Arizona voters should know the winner “when they go to bed on election night.”
It is logical to think that Americans should know who won an election before going to bed. However, critics of such a rational thought process state that modern-day ballot processing “requires extensive time and labor, according to election officials and experts.”
DeSantis also made comments about Florida’s commitment to election integrity.
RSBN reported:
DeSantis additionally touted Florida’s commitment to election integrity, noting the recent establishment of an Election Integrity Unit, which will enable the state to “investigate” issues as they arise.
“In Florida, we’re very proud that we made ballot harvesting a felony in the State of Florida,” he said. “We’re very proud that we have voter ID not just for going in to vote in person but for requesting an absentee ballot. We’re very proud that we were able to have penalties for counties if they don’t clean their voter rolls every year.”
Granted, Florida did have its fair share of ups and downs. We all remember the 2000 elections. Do the words “Hanging Chads” ring any bells, DeSantis?
To be fair, Ron DeSantis wasn’t in office then, but we also can’t ignore Florida’s painstakingly long-awaited declared winner. Multiple recounts took place because, as usual, Democrats never go down quietly.
USA Today reported:
“The no-counts then became the heart of the Gore campaign to call for a manual recount. Americans learned the difference between a “hanging chad,” where a punched piece of paper hung on at one corner, or a dimpled chad, where a ballot was not punched at all but indented.
In any case, “chads” were a moot point by the time it reached the Supreme Court, when the court ruled that recounting some ballots but not others violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. Bush famously won the state by 537 votes, and won the election.”
The 2000 election will always be remembered for the hanging chads. It is fair to say that the lessons learned during those days were taken to heart by Floridians because today, Florida has since made a point to have results before Americans go to bed.
Now it may be Arizona’s turn to learn a similar lesson.
Just the News reported:
“The elections director for Pinal County, Arizona, is no longer in his position following a string of misshaps during the Tuesday primary elections.”
If Kari Lake beats Hobbs in the primary, we could also see changes in Arizona’s voting processes. Hopefully, there won’t be any more absentee ballot drop boxes in Arizona too. Only time will tell if Arizona will follow Florida’s example of learning from its mistakes.
