Florida is on track to be very close in next Tuesday’s presidential election—as it’s been close in so many recent elections. So you want to be confident that Florida’s election officials will be fair and honest brokers committed to small-d democracy. This ain't that.
The acting head of the vote-counting board in Duval County, senior county Judge Brent Shore, has donated to Donald Trump’s campaign 12 times—once in 2016 and 11 times since then, for a total of $170—and has his house festooned with Trump signs, as well as signs for Republican Rep. John Rutherford, The Florida Times-Union reports. “Festooned” is not an exaggeration here: a Trump sign, a Trump banner, four Trump stickers, and two Rutherford signs.
Judges are not allowed to do that. Canvassing board heads are not allowed to do that. The campaign donations are allowable for canvassing board members, but the signs and stickers and banner are not—and even the donations are not allowed for judges.
What’s even more disturbing is that as the Duval canvassing board counts early ballots, Shore has banned photography in meetings despite the Florida courts requiring inconspicuous photography to be allowed. “When Democratic lawyers asked to see duplicated ballots that would be counted as votes,” The Florida Times-Union reports, “Shore said they were accusing him of lying since he was reading off the duplicated ballots to them. The issue, he said, was one of trust, even though the lawyers had a right to request the ballots.”
In one case, the original ballot that the canvassing board was scrutinizing to determine the voter’s intent had bubbles filled in for both the Republican House members whose signs are in Shore’s yard and for his Democratic opponent, with difficult-to-read writing next to the vote. The board decided to treat it as a vote for Rutherford.
All of this raises the prospect of legal action that could force the canvassing board—perhaps minus Shore—to recount all the votes it has already counted, possibly delaying results on election night.
Shore, by the way, presided over the Duval County canvassing board in 2000. They threw out 26,000 votes.