Q&A of the Day – Was any voter fraud found in Florida?
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Today’s entry: In 2018 the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, chaired by VP Pence, was disbanded. Was fraud found in FL? If so, why wasn’t it addressed?
Bottom Line: To your point, the Presidential Advisory Commission created by the Trump administration in 2017 to review election fraud, was disbanded early in 2018. At the time President Trump stated the Commission couldn’t complete its work due to a lack of cooperation by states. As a result, there were no official findings acted on by the Commission in Florida or elsewhere. I can address evidenced voter fraud from the 2016 cycle acted on by authorities using the Heritage Foundation’s voter fraud database. Cases stemming from the cycle leading to voter fraud convictions occurred from 2016-2018. Here’s the summation...
- 190 criminal convictions across 42 states
That included 62 criminal convictions for voter fraud in 2016, 63 in 2017 and 65 in 2018. Included within those 42 states are all seven contested by President Trump last year and Florida. In Florida, we had six criminal convictions for voter fraud. This speaks to the importance to examine facts rather than narrative. The facts reveal extensive, criminally prosecuted voter fraud. Narrative suggests claims of it are “baseless”. This has long been my greatest frustration on this topic and long before the controversies of the 2020 cycle. Voter fraud exists and has been pervasive in literally every election cycle. The only question is whether the fraud committed is extensive enough to alter the outcome of elections.
This exercise is also important from the perspective of understanding the context of the 2020 cycle. History suggests we won’t fully understand the extent of alleged voter fraud until next year. Comprehensive investigations take time, and the legal process does as well. This is why it’s important that reforms are put into place now. The reforms Florida undertook in Broward and Palm Beach County in the 1st quarter of 2019 are precisely the reasons we had a successful cycle last year. As I mentioned earlier in the week, Governor DeSantis is right to lead on greater enhancements in our state, as it still is only graded a 75 out of 100 according to Harvard’s Election Integrity Project. Additionally, it’s important similar reforms occur nationally ASAP.
Florida simply ranks as one of the better states for election integrity in the second to worst country for integrity in the developed world. Governor DeSantis’s leadership on this issue in Florida is encouraging, as is Florida state senator Joe Gruter’s spearheading the effort for the Republican party nationally, but there is a long way to go and a short time to get there. At least if we want to have enhanced integrity before next year’s midterm elections. Election integrity should never be a partisan issue. The facts regarding the criminal convictions for voter fraud in our state and others speak for themselves. Voter fraud is real. It is pervasive. It’s been criminally prosecuted in literally every election cycle and unless you support voter fraud you should support efforts to enhance integrity. And as a reminder, if you don’t trust Republicans on this issue, what about Harvard? There are two sides to stories and one side to facts.
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