Florida: State will investigate voting problems in 5 counties | Tampa Bay Times

Florida lawmakers on Tuesday began scrutinizing all that went wrong at the polls last month, and Gov. Rick Scott’s elections team made plans to investigate five counties that “underperformed.” Secretary of State Ken Detzner said he and voting experts will make “fact-finding” trips next week to Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Lee counties and report findings to the governor. Lines of voters in Miami-Dade were up to seven hours long, Palm Beach had to fix thousands of misprinted absentee ballots and St. Lucie was the only county that failed to count all ballots by a state deadline. The other two counties struggled with long lines, too. “Long lines are unacceptable,” Detzner testified.

Florida: Election over? Not yet, insist Florida Democrats | Tampa Bay Times

Democrats delivered Florida to President Barack Obama for a second time last month and loosened Republicans’ grip on power in the state Capitol. But they may have won something more meaningful in the 2012 election than a few more seats in the Legislature. As they gathered Monday in a caucus room in Tallahassee, Democrats had one thing on their minds: how to maintain ownership of the hottest issue in the state now. That is, protecting the right to vote and holding Republicans accountable for long lines, delayed ballot counts and an expansion of provisional ballots. The election may be over, but the fight over how the election was managed has only just begun.

Florida: Early voting limits motivated Democrats, minorities to turn out | Palm Beach Post

Pizza, popsicles and port-a-potties may have helped secure the decisive win for President Barack Obama and other Democrats in Florida. Obama’s data-driven campaign machine and the popular president himself deserve most of the credit. But the GOP-majority legislature may have unwittingly given Obama a boost with a restrictive election law reportedly targeted at Democratic and minority voters. Progressives, left-leaning groups and the NAACP, which did not endorse Obama, rallied in opposition to the law and used it to motivate voters, including blacks for whom restrictions on early voting triggered a generations-old sensitivity to having their vote suppressed.

Florida: Democrats file bills to increase early voting hours | Palm Beach Post

Democrats in the Florida Senate on Thursday filed the first legislation arising out of concerns over voting difficulties, seeking to expand early voting times and the places where early voting can occur. The measures would also eliminate a requirement that people who have moved into a community from outside the county vote a provisional ballot on Election Day if they hadn’t earlier changed their legal address.

Florida: Election Woes Lead Miami-Dade Panel to Seek Remedies | NBC 6

The marathon waits faced by thousands of voters in this month’s 2012 election should never have to happen again. That was the goal voiced by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Wednesday. He convened an election advisory group to identify what went wrong during the election and what steps can be taken locally to fix them. Wednesday’s gathering by the advisory group was its second one this week.  At least two more meetings are expected before the group starts coming up with remedies. “It’s just not right that any voter in Miami-Dade County has to stand in line for five hours to cast a vote,” Gimenez said.

Florida: Democrats call for federal probe into Florida voting law | MSNBC

Six congressional Democrats are calling for a federal investigation into a 2011 Florida voting law following a Palm Beach Post report that suggested Republicans intended to suppress Democratic turnout with the new rules. The multi-pronged law, H.B. 1355, put restrictions on third-party registration groups that were so burdensome they were ultimately struck down by a federal court. It also reduced early voting from 14 to eight days, ending voting on the Sunday before Election Day, when many minority voters participated in Souls to the Polls events in 2008.

Florida: Jim Greer, Charlie Crist Admit Voter Suppression Was Behind Change in Florida Election Laws | NYTimes.com

It’s common knowledge that Florida cut back on early voting in 2011 to reduce the turnout of blacks and other groups likely to vote for Democrats. But it’s refreshing to see that former top Republicans in the state are now saying so out loud. In an interview with the Palm Beach Post published on Sunday, the former chairman of the Florida Republican party said voter suppression was the sole reason for the change to the election rules. Jim Greer, the party chairman in from 2006 to 2010, said he went to several meetings during which Republican officials discussed the damage that early voting — which brought an unprecedented number of black voters to the polls in 2008 — had done to the party. “The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates,” Mr. Greer said. “It’s done for one reason and one reason only.”

Florida: Former Florida GOP leaders say voter suppression was reason they pushed new election law | Palm Beach Post

A new Florida law that contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters, former GOP officials and current GOP consultants have told The Palm Beach Post. Republican leaders said in proposing the law that it was meant to save money and fight voter fraud. But a former GOP chairman and former Gov. Charlie Crist, both of whom have been ousted from the party, now say that fraud concerns were advanced only as subterfuge for the law’s main purpose: GOP victory.

Florida: Several Florida Republicans Admit Voter Fraud was Subterfuge for GOP Victory | Politicus USA

Leaks are a part of the GOP’s slow implosion. So it’s not a surprise that current and former Republicans are admitting the real purpose of the voter ID and early voting laws. The Florida law that cut early voting was an intentional tactic to hand Florida to the GOP by inhibiting Democratic turnout, former GOP officials and “current GOP consultants” told the Palm Beach Post. Former GOP Florida Chairman called the voter ID laws a “marketing ploy” and Crist said he was approached about changing the laws regarding early voting. Two veteran GOP campaign consultants echoed Crist and Greer’s claims.

Florida: New Senate president: Elections will be improved | News-JournalOnline.com

Senate President Don Gaetz forcefully pledged that the Legislature will do something to avoid election embarrassment in two years, while also promising to reach out to Democrats and usher in a new era of more ethical conduct as he leads the Senate the next two years. Gaetz, a Republican from Niceville, was sworn in Tuesday as the 85th president of the state Senate as the Legislature held a short organizational session to admit new members elected earlier this month, and formally choose its leaders, though they’ve been known for months. The day also saw the Legislature’s 120 representatives and 40 senators taking their oaths of office two weeks after they were elected or re-elected.

Florida: Allen West’s Concession Won’t End Troubles for St. Lucie County Elections | Sunshine State News

U.S. Rep. Allen West may have ended his two-week battle with election officials in St. Lucie County on Tuesday, but the Treasure Coast office will continue to face scrutiny over how it handled the election. Florida Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, vowed she will pursue correcting how the supervisor of elections office reportedly double-counted some ballots and misplaced others in West’s defeat to Democrat Patrick Murphy of Jupiter. “We’re going to move forward looking very carefully at the recommendations, seeing exactly what they say and see what went wrong with this election process in St. Lucie County,” Harrell said Tuesday.

Florida: New Florida leaders vow election fix | SFGate

Florida’s new legislative leaders on Tuesday pledged to fix the state’s troubled elections system, and promised a new era of cooperation in the wake of a string of Election Day defeats that surprised many top Republicans. The GOP still firmly controls the Florida Legislature, but the tone struck by new Senate President Don Gaetz and new House Speaker Will Weatherford was a stark turnaround from the past two years. Weatherford stressed the need for Democrats and Republicans to work together, while Gaetz said that voters don’t want finger-pointing over why things can’t get done.

Florida: West Concedes to Murphy | Roll Call

Florida Republican Rep. Allen B. West, one of the highest-profile and most-controversial members of the 2010 freshman class, conceded to Democrat Patrick Murphy after a nasty, brutish and long campaign. “While many questions remain unanswered, today I am announcing that I will take no further action to contest the outcome of this election,” West said in a statement Tuesday. “While a contest of the election results might have changed the vote totals, we do not have evidence that the outcome would change.” He added: “I want to congratulate my opponent, Patrick Murphy, as the new Congressman from the 18th Congressional District. I pray he will serve his constituents with honor and integrity, and put the interests of our nation before his own.”

Florida: St. Lucie County may not release final recount results | TCPalm.com

An official report of the two-day recount results might not be released to the public after the county Canvassing Board missed a state deadline to have the report certified. Annie Clark, administrative assistant for Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker, said Monday she never indicated the latest recount results would be available Monday. Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers previously reported that Clark said Sunday that the results “would not be printed for distribution until Monday at the earliest,” and that, “We met the noon deadline.” Clark, who has been filling in for Walker and oversaw the weekend recount, was unavailable for an interview and did not answer emails about those conflicting statements.

Florida: West watch: no concession, no decision on challenging apparent Murphy win | Palm Beach Post

Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West has neither conceded nor committed to future challenges after final results from St. Lucie, Martin and Palm Beach counties on Sunday showed Democrat Patrick Murphy winning the congressional District 18 race by 1,904 votes or 0.58 percent. Murphy’s margin is just beyond the state’s 0.5 percent threshold for an automatic recount. And Murphy’s lead would be 242 votes larger if problem-plagued St. Lucie County hadn’t missed Sunday’s noon deadline for submitting final results after a recount of more than 37,000 ballots from early voting.

Florida: Murphy-West recount rhetoric reminiscent of Bush v. Gore in 2000 | Palm Beach Post

Every close and disputed election has its own unique set of facts, but all have two things in common: the candidate who’s behind wants to keep counting votes and the candidate who’s ahead wants the counting to stop. The Congressional District 18 race between Republican Rep. Allen West and unofficial Democratic victor Patrick Murphy is no exception. West, trailing by less than 1 percent, became the latest count-every-vote advocate after it became apparent that St. Lucie County bungled its initial tally of early votes. He pressed all last week for a full recount of more than 37,000 early ballots, finally got one Saturday, and appeared to have fallen 241 votes further behind Murphy when the exercise ended Sunday.

Florida: New law sparks increase in use of provisional ballots in Florida counties | jacksonville.com

County officials say a new election law sparked the flood of people who needed to cast provisional ballots, which are used when a voter’s eligibility is in question and are not always counted. “There were off the charts more,” said Chris Chambless, Clay County’s supervisor of elections. His county normally sees about 20 of these ballots. This year, the number ballooned to nearly 400. An election law passed in 2011 required voters who moved to a new county and did not change their address before voting to use a provisional ballot. Before that, Florida voters had been able to change their address on election day. “It was like putting gum in the engine of the voting process,” said Deirdre McNabb, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida. Her group opposed the provision ballot change.

Florida: Murphy claims victory after recount deadline, West weighs challenge | The Hill

Democrat Patrick Murphy’s campaign is claiming victory in his race to unseat GOP Rep. Allen West (Fla.) on Sunday after a deadline for certifying results passed and a partial recount added votes to the challenger’s lead. But the West campaign says they are still evaluating whether to launch a legal challenge contesting the count. A partial recount of early ballots in St. Lucia Country showed Murphy gaining 242 votes, according to media reports. Before the partial recount of early ballots Sunday, Murphy was leading by 1,907 votes. A noon Sunday deadline, though, required officials to certify the result, leaving the Murphy camp to claim that the race was over.

Florida: West seeks hearing after Murphy camp declares victory when St. Lucie board misses noon deadline | Palm Beach Post

The St. Lucie County canvassing board has missed a noon deadline to file election results to the Division of Elections, prompting campaign officials for Patrick Murphy to declare the political newcomer the winner in the race for congressional District 18 race. Under Florida law, the final certified results were due from all of the state’s 67 supervisors of elections today. If the results do not arrive on time, the certified unofficial results submitted last Sunday stand. Those results have Murphy winning by 0.58 percent. A spread of less than 0.5 percent would have triggered an automatic recount. “Today at noon, it became clear Patrick Murphy will be officially certified as the next congressman from the 18th Congressional District,” Anthony Kusich, Murphy for Congressman campaign manager, said in a prepared statement issued around 12:40 p.m. “The voters have spoken and Patrick Murphy is once again the clear winner. It is beyond time to put this campaign behind us and put the interests of the people of the Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches first.”

Florida: Failed Amendments Suggest Lawmakers Knew Election Mess was Coming | Bradenton Times

Embarrassed by their worst in the nation results conducting the 2012 election for President of the United States, Florida Governor Rick Scott and the Republican state legislature are promising to get to the bottom of what happened to cause the debacle in which the last votes were not cast until the following day and results were not reported until four days later. However, HB 1355 seems to be the clear culprit, and amendments proposed by the minority party seem to clearly indicate that lawmakers were aware of the fiasco the new rules would cause, but ignored efforts to mitigate it. The new election law, passed by Republicans in the 2011 session amid fierce opposition from Democrats and non-partisan voter rights groups, was signed into law by the Governor, despite warnings that it would cause chaos similar to what voters endured last week. The law shortened early voting, made for longer ballots by expanding the summary of unlimited proposed ballot amendments, and created restrictions that ensured local supervisors would have more of the time-consuming provisional ballots to collect and count.

Florida: Allen West court battle could last into next year | The Hill

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) indicated on Thursday that he may continue to pursue legal options if a circuit court rules against his request for a full recount on Friday. West’s request, for a full recount of all eight days of early voting in a county in the 18th District, is due to be heard in court on Friday. If the court rules against him, Democrat Patrick Murphy will likely be named the official winner of the race. But West has 10 days after the race is officially called to contest it. On Thursday, he didn’t rule out the prospect of continuing the battle.

Florida: Human error and call company’s hands-off approach led to faulty Election Day robocalls | Tampa Bay Times

After robocalls went out on Election Day telling Pinellas County residents that “tomorrow” was the last day to vote, blame for the national embarrassment ricocheted from Largo to Santa Monica, Calif. At first, Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark pointed at CallFire Inc., the California-based broadcast messaging company she paid to remind 38,700 voters to return their mail ballots. CallFire CEO Dinesh Ravishanker shot back, blaming the debacle on the elections office and “human error.” But images of the CallFire program provided by Clark’s office, as well as interviews with election and county officials, now suggest the botched calls were caused by a combination of public servants’ blunders and CallFire’s hands-off approach.

Florida: Recount under way in West-Murphy race | Orlando Sentinel

Tens of thousands of ballots in one Florida county were painstakingly fed through scanners Saturday as U.S. Rep. Allen West clung to hope that a recount could keep the freshman Republican and conservative firebrand in Congress. A judge allowed the recount to go forward in St. Lucie County over the objections of Democrat Patrick Murphy, the unofficial winner of the race. Though the recount is not mandated by state law because Murphy’s margin of victory is above the legal threshold, St. Lucie Circuit Judge Larry Schack said either candidate could still formally contest the election if they believe it was unfair.

Florida: State Rep. Gayle Harrell Calls St. Lucie County Elections ‘A Disaster’ | Sunshine State News

An election inspection team ordered by Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner is on the ground in Fort Pierce as the city mayor’s contest has spawned the second lawsuit that questions the general election results in St. Lucie County. The three-day audit by the state Division of Elections, spurred by state Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, adds to a scene already dominated by U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, disputing problems encountered during early voting by the county supervisor of elections office and further adds to Florida’s history of voting problems that have earned national scorn since 2000.

Florida: State to Address Delays as It Confirms Obama Victory | NYTimes.com

President Obama was re-elected Tuesday. Mitt Romney’s campaign conceded defeat in Florida on Thursday. And a few indefatigable politicians are already planning on making pit stops in Iowa. But in Florida, time stood still — until Saturday. After days of counting absentee ballots, the official results are in, at last: To the surprise of no one, Mr. Obama narrowly beat out his Republican rival 50 percent to 49.1 percent, a difference of about 74,000 votes. The state is consumed by finger-pointing and finger-wagging as election officials, lawmakers and voters try to make sense of what went wrong on Election Day and during early voting. A record number of Florida voters — 8.4 million, or 70 percent of those registered — cast ballots. Of those, 2.1 million people voted early, and 2.4 million sent absentee ballots.

Florida: Rick Scott asks Secretary of State to talk reform with county election officials | jacksonville.com

Gov. Rick Scott has asked Secretary of State Ken Detzner to begin meeting with county election officials to discuss potential election reforms. The meeting comes on the heels of last week’s election, which saw up to six hour lines in some areas, and Florida not finishing its statewide vote count for days after the Nov. 6 election day. “We need to make improvements in our election process,” Scott said in a release. “If even one Floridian has lost confidence in our voting process, we need to do whatever we can to make sure that confidence is restored.”

Florida: St. Lucie County vote recount underway | WPTV

The state-mandated recount of the Fort Pierce mayoral race began at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday with about 20 members of the media, the campaigns and the public at the elections office. The recount is required because the vote difference between Vince Gaskin and Linda Hudson a half-percent or less. Results had Gaskin ahead by five votes after Election Day and then ahead by 21 votes after provisional ballots were counted Thursday and Friday. Hudson then took the lead by 61 votes after early votes from Nov. 1-3 were recounted Sunday.

Florida: Groups call for sweeping election changes in Florida | Herald Tribune

Democratic lawmakers, liberal activists and labor unions on Monday called for sweeping changes in Florida’s voting laws, warning that if Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers do not act the issues could end up in court. “We are calling upon the state to move very quickly and not to continue to undermine our democracy by cutting off the participation of Florida voters,” said Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project, a civil rights group. The call came after Florida again became the center of national attention — and ridicule — as the state was the last in the nation to be able to tally its votes and declare a winner in the presidential race.

Florida: West challenges results as Florida declares vote-tally over amid recounts and irregularities | Fox News

Florida Republican Rep. Allen West continues to challenge election officials’ tallies that show he has lost his re-election bid – amid wild ballot swings on Tuesday and a partial recount needed because of voting-machine problems. The Tea Party-backed West demanded a recount after the swing of votes on election night, leading Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy by roughly 2,000 votes, then trailing by 2,400 votes about 35 minutes later.

Florida: Almost 1K ballots found in Broward elections warehouse | WSVN

Nearly a thousand ballots that were not included in Florida’s final count have been found in a warehouse in Broward County. Tuesday morning and into the night, there was a buzz of activity at the Voting Equipment Center in Lauderhill, a week after the general election. There was a recount going on for two commission seats that were too close to call, one in Hallandale Beach and another in Dania Beach. Workers had to count those votes manually.