Florida, the new Zimbabwe

Regular readers of WWW [as oppoed to "irregular" border-crossers. Ed.] will know that Walt has an abiding interest in Zimbabwe, the failing African state whose name has become a metaphor for incompetence and corruption -- two nouns which have been much in use since November 8th as journalists and pundits struggle to describe the gubernatorial and senate elections in the Not-so-great State of Florida.

The ZANU-PF party has ruled the Land of Bambazonke since independence, thanks to its expertise in the rigging ["running", shurely! Ed.] of elections. For instance, when their candidate is trailing in the vote count, they simply stop counting! That's what happened in 2013 when weeks after polling day it was announced that President Mugabe had received the most votes, but not enough to prevent a run-off. The opposition candidate then withdrew from the race, leaving Comrade Bob to win in a landslide. See "'Incidences' from the Zimbabwean election", WWW 2/8/13.

They didn't risk having to compete in a run-off this year. All the results of July's polls were announced within 48 hours, except for that of the contest for the presidensity. After a couple of days of "They're coming just now," the government-appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commision announced that Bob's successor, Comrade ED [No relation! Ed.] had won 50.8% of the vote, just enough to avoid a runoff. See "ED wins Zimbabwe presidential election - quelle surprise!" WWW 2/8/18.

Does this remind you of any election in any place you've been hearing about lately? How about Florida? In particular, how about Broward and Palm Beach Counties? I have no bias against those counties -- used to live there myself -- but can't help but notice that the stench of electoral corruption is worse than usual this year.

"Preliminary results" announced in the wee hours of Wednesday showed Republican Governor Rick Scott leading incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson in the contest for a US Senate seat, and Republican Ron DeSantis ahead of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in the race for the state house.

To nobody's surprise, the lamestream media refused to "project" a winner, saying it was too close to call, absentee ballots hadn't been counted, a recount was possible, and so on. Why? Because the election machinery was in the control of "non-partisan" officials such as Broward County's Supervisor of Elections, Brenda Snipes, who President Trump said "has had a horrible history..."

Here, from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, is what POTUS was talking about.

• In 2004, approximately 58,000 mail-in ballots were not delivered to voters.
• In 2012, nearly 1,000 uncounted ballots were discovered a week after the election.
• Election results in the 2016 primary were posted on the election office's website before the polls closed.
• A court ruled Snipes had broken election law when she destroyed ballots from the 2016 election 12 months after it, instead of the 22 months required by federal law.

Republicans blamed problems in Broward County on the design of the ballot there. “The ballot was laid out in an incompetent fashion by the incompetent supervisor of elections,” said Mr Scott's attorney, Bill Scherer, apparently referring to Mrs Snipes.

The analysts at FiveThirtyEight questioned whether the position of the Senate race on the Broward County ballot (at the bottom left-hand corner of Page 1) meant some voters skipped over the race. In Broward, some 26,060 fewer people casts voted in the Senate race compared with the governor’s race, a difference of 3.7%.

Mr Nelson's attorney, however, said he believes the problem was with the machine counters -- nothing to do with Mrs Snipes. "I am pretty confident what you are going to see are markings that were not picked up by the machines or a calibration issue that was not registering that part of the ballot," he said.

Reports that Brenda Snipes received her training in public administration in Zimbabwe are untrue. She comes from that hotbed of democracy, Talladega County AL. It's just a coincidence that the start of a statewide recount, which began Sunday morning, has been delayed by a series of technical glitches with the counting machines... in Broward County.

Stay tuned for the revised and improved results, due at 1500 EST on Thursday. Or call Mrs Snipes' office for the official figures. If you can't wait, call anytime!

Further reading: "What can we expect from Florida recount — 2018 edition?" by Brendan Swisher, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/11/18.