Marco Rubio falsely claims "democrat lawyers" are trying to steal Florida elections
On November 8, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) claimed that "democrat lawyers" are trying "to change the results of [the] election" this week in Florida, a conspiracy theory that numerous conservative media figures are also running with. Rubio's tweets argued that votes still being tallied, which are bringing a number of races within the margin to trigger an automatic recount, shouldn't be counted, in part because the "law requires counties report early voting & vote-by-mail within 30 minutes after polls close." In reality, Rubio botched his description of Florida law, and the officials in charge of counting the votes are Republican appointees.
Local reporters immediately debunk Rubio-inspired conspiracy theory
Miami New Times: Republican appointees are in charge of recount. Shortly after Rubio tweeted his baseless charge of Democrats trying to steal the election alongside an erroneous interpretation of Florida election law, the Miami New Times debunked his allegations of illegal partisanship on the part of election officials. From the Miami New Times:
Though Rubio is correct that the Broward elections department absolutely sucks, the office has never been accused (credibly, at least) of tampering with election results or illegally tipping the scales toward one candidate. There's also zero evidence that the Democratic "lawyers" Rubio references are up to anything more nefarious than normal.
Rubio is also leaving out some really important details. For one, [Supervisor of Elections Brenda] Snipes was a [former Republican Gov.] Jeb Bush appointee, so she's not exactly an obvious partisan. Two: The person in charge of election recounts at the state level is Secretary of State Ken Detzner, whom [Gov. Rick] Scott appointed to the job. Detzner and Scott were repeatedly accused of working together to hatch schemes designed to suppress Democratic votes over the past eight years. It is, frankly, a blatant conflict of interest for Detzner to oversee Scott's recount, but Rubio isn't complaining about that here. [Miami New Times, 11/8/17]
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