Florida's Election Accountability & Hurricane Season – Top 3 Takeaways – November 29th, 2022
- Election accountability has increased compliance. The words of Governor DeSantis yesterday as Florida’s Election Crimes Division, three weeks removed from Election Day, hasn’t identified a single case of potential voter fraud stemming from the midterm elections. That doesn’t mean there won’t be something which turns up, but what it does mean as was stated by the governor yesterday, is that nothing has. Quoting the governor, I think the fact that we have put in place an ability to hold people accountable if they violate election laws has contributed to, just, compliance. Why worry, why violate the law if you know you’re going to be held accountable? It’s not worth it. And that leads to another important point and key takeaway from this election cycle. It's not just that Florida backed up the smoothest, most well-run election cycle in our state’s history in 2020, it’s that it was even better run this time. That was true in the speed of processing, despite the impact of hurricanes in numerous counties, and that appears to have been true by way of voter fraud. Since the 2018 election cycle there have been 13 criminal convictions for voter fraud in Florida, including three this year stemming from the 2020 cycle (the wheels of justice move slowly as the saying goes), and one overturned election resulting from voter fraud. As I’ve often said and illustrated over the years, just because news media doesn’t choose to report on voter fraud doesn’t mean it didn’t occur. Except that this time around it really might not have which would be a first in Florida were that to be the case. Many have noticed and commented on how Florida’s elections have gone from being the joke of the country to the model the rest of the country should use. That didn’t just happen by accident. Three laws in four years reforming Florida’s elections have been passed under Governor DeSantis resulting in what we’ve seen and experienced. And the potential absence of voter fraud doesn’t just magically happen for the first time in our state’s history either. For all the critics of Florida’s Election Crimes Division, including the numerous loud voices in South Florida news media, they’ve been proven wrong yet again. The best kind of law enforcement is proactive law enforcement leading to crimes that are never committed. Florida’s “election police” as many have derisively referred to the Election Crimes Division, didn’t inhibit anyone from legally voting, however their presence may have resulted in no one casting illegal votes. And speaking about votes...
- There was a record Republican advantage in Florida on Election Day. I know, you’re thinking, well duh. We’ve talked about this. But there is new information which illustrated the extent of the Republican voter registration surge in Florida leading up to Election Day. The state’s monthly voter registration update is now in, reflecting all registered voters in Florida as of the start of November. Not only did Republicans lead in voter registration once again in October, in the run up to November’s elections, they added over 31k more voters than Democrats during the month leading to an incredible change in year-to-date voter registrations in Florida. Democrats have lost over 110,000 net voters this year while Republicans added over 173,000 for an incredible net gain of over 283,000 for the GOP through the first ten months of the year – a total which now exceeds 423k over Election Day two years ago. It was a record setting cycle for republicans in Florida. That was true of the midterm elections which resulted in a record number of republicans elected statewide. It has certainly been true by way of voter registration as well.
- Goodbye hurricane season. November ending today doesn’t mean it’s not possible for potential tropical spinups, but it does mean it’s the end of hurricane season making it one of my favorite days of the year. That’s especially true this year as Florida took it on the chin from two hurricanes including the incredibly devastating Ian, which is still growing in expense today. In Southeast Florida, our horseshoe remains intact as we’ve dodged another season free from the direct landfall of a hurricane. A streak which dates back to the then record setting 2004-2005 hurricane cycle. The impact of hurricane seasons are generally relative. The 1992 season was one of the quietest on record, but don’t try telling anyone who lived through the direct impact of Andrew about that – it most certainly wasn’t for them. That said, because of Florida’s lack of good fortune this year, the season may seem a bit worse than usual but, in the end, it turned out to be exceedingly “usual”. In NOAA’s preseason forecast they called for an above-normal hurricane season with a midpoint estimate of 18 named storms, eight hurricanes and five majors. In the end we experienced 14 named storms (which was at the lowest potential end of their preseason forecast), eight hurricanes (right in line with expectations) and just two majors. It’s one which turned out to be exceedingly average – except for the folks in the path of Hurricane Ian.