Today’s entry - What I want to hear from (Broward’s) SOE, which he has not said, we took all workers into a room, explained to them that ANYONE who does not follow handling of ballots to the letter, will IMMEDIATELY be arrested on-site and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Bottom Line: To be fair, we don’t know that didn’t happen. I get the sense in talking with Broward’s Election Supervisor, Peter Antonacci, that he’s a very smart guy. But to your point on what's changed in Broward County since the 2018 debacle and the DeSantis appointed Supervisors took over?
First, a complete review of the voter database and a new policy to notify via mail all voters who’ve become “inactive” by state standards with instructions on how to become active again if eligible. A purging of inactive voters on Broward’s rolls. Plus, a new process for designing ballots that includes input from candidates and their campaigns. Lastly, a full inspection and maintenance of Broward’s voting machines, many of which failed during the 2018 elections.
It’s possible there’s more to the story that hasn’t been made public but there you go. You can infer if you think enough has changed to restore confidence in our elections. From my perspective, it somewhat is enough. The failures in Broward were primarily human error and violations of Florida Election law starting with the Supervisor herself. If we have the right people and systems in place, most of the issues should be addressed.
Broward's previous supervisor used the size of her office and the number of votes to be tabulated as excuses for her failures. Excuses wouldn’t be acceptable regardless, but it also falls short of reality because Miami-Dade's election’s office is the largest in the state and hasn’t had the problems that Broward has. When I look at what’s changed and how Miami-Dade similarly conducts its elections, I am considerably more confident about the prospect of elections in Broward County than I did before the 2018 debacle.
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