Thousands of votes were never counted in Florida, but it wasn’t the fault of elections officials
Excerpt: TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida officials say thousands of mailed ballots were not counted because they were delivered too late to state election offices. The Department of State last week informed a federal judge that 6,670 ballots were mailed ahead of the Nov. 6 election but were not counted because they were not received by Election Day. The tally prepared by state officials includes totals from 65 of Florida's 67 counties. Under Florida law, ballots mailed inside the United States must reach election offices by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Overseas ballots are counted if they are received up to 10 days after the election.
Bottom Line: Who knows how many races were potentially impacted by those uncounted votes. Whether it was Florida’s Agriculture race decided by fewer votes than those not sent in time or more likely state and local races – there's no telling if certain elections would have turned out differently. We had two state house races decided by fewer than 100 votes, another decided by just over 300 and lord only know about local only races. Just prior to the cycle starting I pointed out that the least reliable way to vote was to mail it in.
Voting by mail has a ten times greater rate of not being counted than voting in person (most commonly because of errors made with the ballot not due to sending them late but clearly that’s an issue too). This is the latest lesson/reminder that it’s not ideal if you can help it. The smallest mistakes, like missing a date by a day in the mail, can make the difference. I’ll say again – vote by mail if you must in the future but if you can help it – you're far better off voting in person. Every statistic on voting demonstrates as much. I’ve heard a number of conspiracy theories that'd been passed around about votes not being counted in person and voting absentee to ensure your vote is counted. I’m here to tell you those are conspiracy theories and nothing more. Even with the shenanigans in Broward and Palm Beach Counties – there wasn’t evidence of votes not counted that were made in person.