RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/gillum-concedes-florida-governor-race/

Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum conceded Florida’s gubernatorial race Saturday to Republican Ron DeSantis.

“R.J. and I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Mr. DeSantis on becoming the next governor of the great state of Florida,” Gillum said in a video posted to Facebook. “This has been the journey of our lives.”

The Tallahassee mayor conceded the race to DeSantis, a former Florida representative, on election night but backtracked as more votes were counted and the race appeared closer than originally thought.

However, DeSantis was still about 30,000 votes ahead after a machine recount.

President Trump appeared to anticipate Gillum’s loss, saying earlier on Twitter than the candidate is a “strong Democrat warrior” and will be a “force to reckon with.”

The sometimes acrimonious race was one of several high-profile midterm races in Florida and saw the two opponents trade barbs over the Parkland shooting and even veer into racial controversies.

“Stay tuned,” Gillum said. “The fight for Florida continues.”

https://pjmedia.com/trending/dem-staffers-in-fl-lawyer-up-as-feds-pursue-voter-fraud-investigation/

Oh, you stupid Republican conspiracy theorists! What’s happening in the counting of ballots in Florida is perfectly normal — just earnest and honest people determined to count every vote and protect democracy.

Then why are they all hiring lawyers?

Politico:

The issue arose after state party staff sent voters forms that are intended to fix vote-by-mail ballots that had been initially rejected. Those forms, which are official state documents, were sent with altered dates, leading the Florida Department of State to turn over the paperwork to several U.S. attorneys and request an inquiry into the “irregularities.”

After saying earlier in the week that the state officials were trying “divert attention” away from the Department of State, which is part of Gov. Rick Scott’s administration, the Democrats on Friday took a different approach: They lawyered up.

“Upon receiving notice of the allegations that the form was incorrect, FDP took immediate steps, including hiring an independent investigator to review the issues at hand,” attorney Mark Herron said in a statement provided by a party spokeswoman. “As soon as we know the results of the investigation we will advise you.”

Yeah, we know. You’ll get back to us on that.

Under state law governing “fraudulent practices,” it’s a third-degree felony to “knowingly and willfully … make or use any false document, knowing the same to contain any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry” connected to the Department of State. While the fraud statute is not contained in the state’s election code, it relates to the 2018 election because the affidavit in question concerned the elections division, which falls under the Department of State.

The case was referred to investigators at the urging of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Scott, both of whom raised concerns about fraud in the election. Their suspicions, however, revolved around tens of thousands of ballots that had been cast in Broward County and, to date, the elections division, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a judge all say they’ve seen no credible evidence of fraud.

Since Broward was one of the original counties targeted by Democrats to “cure” absentee ballots by using an altered form, investigators are obviously not looking very hard to find any fraud.

The issue was discussed in a number of internal party emails that have since become public, including one from Democratic staffer Jennifer Kim, who explained “the voters must print the form and sign it by hand.”

After sending the statement from Heron Friday, Caroline Rowland, the party’s communication director, did not respond to questions about whether Kim had been fired. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://pjmedia.com/trending/3000-votes-disappear-from-florida-recount-tally/

The New York Times is reporting that a discrepancy of 3000 ballots exists between the number of votes originally reported and the tally after the recount was finished on Friday.

Does it surprise anyone that the counties with the largest discrepancy are Democratic counties?

The discrepancy in votes is especially pronounced in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Here are some highlights from the Times report:

None of the discrepancies would be enough to affect the outcome of the three statewide and three local elections that are still waiting for a winner to be called. But they come as at least three Florida counties — two of them Democratic strongholds whose results could be decisive — have reported problems counting their shares of the more than 8.1 million ballots cast across the state.

In one of the most serious cases, Palm Beach County found “dozens of precincts missing a significant number” of votes during the machine recount, according to the supervisor of elections, Susan Bucher, causing the county to conclude that entire boxes of ballots may not have been counted.

Wow. Just wow.

How’s this for absolute stupidity?

Ms. Bucher blamed an overheated and outdated ballot-scanning machine. But the manufacturer of the high-speed scanner used in Palm Beach said its technicians had witnessed Palm Beach County elections workers, apparently worried that one of the machines was running too fast, jam a paper clip into the scanner’s “enter” button in an effort to slow it down. That, in turn, caused a short circuit that cut off the power, a company spokeswoman said.

Bucher should pitch a sitcom to network execs. They wouldn’t even need a laugh track.

The difference in Broward County was 0.29 percent — higher than the margin between the candidates in both the Senate and agriculture commissioner’s races.

“This is a big deal,” said E. John Sebes, founder of Open Source Election Technology, a nonprofit group in San Francisco that promotes accuracy and security in the vote-counting process. “If you have an election margin of 0.21 percent and a variance of 0.12 percent, the variance of your machine count is half the margin you are trying to correct. That’s kooky.”CONTINUE AT SITE

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2018/11/16/its-over-recounts-show-rick-scott-gaining-votes-despite-democrats-malfeasance-and-incompetence-n2536075?

We’re a week-and-a-half past election day, and Florida Democrats are still refusing to concede the gubernatorial and Senate races they’ve almost certainly lost. Because the GOP’s victory margins were quite thin, mandatory recounts were triggered — but those margins are still large enough (roughly 34,000 and 13,000 in the governor and Senate contests, respectively) that the outcomes are not in doubt. Following the required machine recounts, apparent newly-elected Senator Rick Scott actually gained a few dozen votes, while apparent Governor-elect Ron DeSantis lost a total of…one vote. Via an Orlando Sentinel reporter:
Gray Rohrer@GrayRohrer

Machine recount totals out for three races. By my count, Scott’s lead in US Senate grew by 41 votes; DeSantis’ lead for governor dropped by 1 vote; Fried’s lead for agriculture commission fell by 19 votes

In reality, Scott should have gained hundreds of additional votes, but two Democratic counties — Broward and Hillsborough — missed their submission deadlines, thus reverting back to their previous, less accurate (and less Scott-favorable) counts:

✔@harrisalexc

HOLD UP. Broward just said they were actually 2 minutes late so their first total will count, *not* the recount. Also the discrepancy of 2,040 votes was due to a “comingling of ballots,” said Joseph D’Alessandro

It looks like Broward will seek to use the updated tally baseline to resolve its final number, after the hand recount takes place. Palm Beach County, another Democratic stronghold, missed its deadline, too. A cynic might say that it almost looked as if they were trying to do so. A judge rejected Democrats’ extension requests. All of this comes on the heels of a shocking story about apparent coordinated voter fraud machinations from Florida Democrats. There must be a full investigation into this:

A day after Florida’s election left top state races too close to call, a Democratic party leader directed staffers and volunteers to share altered election forms with voters to fix signature problems on absentee ballots after the state’s deadline. The altered forms surfaced in Broward, Santa Rosa, Citrus and Okaloosa counties and were reported to federal prosecutors to review for possible election fraud as Florida counties completed a required recount in three top races. But an email obtained by the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida shows that Florida Democrats were organizing a broader statewide effort beyond those counties to give voters the altered forms to fix improper absentee ballots after the Nov. 5 deadline. Democratic party leaders provided staffers with copies of a form, known as a “cure affidavit,” that had been modified to include an inaccurate Nov. 8 deadline. One Palm Beach Democratic activist said in an interview the idea was to have voters fix and submit as many absentee ballots as possible with the altered forms in hopes of later including them in vote totals if a judge ruled such ballots were allowed.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/11/ocasiocortez_turning_into_a_nightmare_for_congressional_dems.html

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is claiming that she is being discriminated against by House Democrats, implying racism. It turns out that she not only brings lots of media attention, she also carries a truckload of attitude.

James Barrett of the Daily Wire:

The nation’s youngest congresswoman has also been sounding the alarm over racism and sexism she suggests she’s already experienced on Capitol Hill.

Conservative Arthur Schwartz thinks she is lying:

This can easily be sorted out. But the victimology of her demand that “Next time try believing women + people of color when they talk about their experiences being a woman or person of color” is a shot across the bow of Nancy Pelosi and the entire House leadership.

She is signaling her willingness to Mau-Mau anyone who offends her even in the most trivial way. With all the attention the media loves to lavish on her, she is able to make endless trouble, and threaten the broad strategy of the Democratic Party: serve the interests of billionaires by garnering the votes of minorities and the poor with appeals to identity politics and free stuff/

The Daily Wire has a telling photograph of Ocasio-Cortez standing apart from a group of other Representatives. Click here to see it.

Boy, I bet that Nancy Pelosi sure misses Joe Crowley, the fourth-ranking member of the House Democratic Caucus that was defeated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the primary in a majority-minority Congressional district in New York City.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-gerrymander-excuse-implodes-1542412885

Elections have a way of blowing up partisan conceits—see what happened to the Democratic Party’s Electoral College “lock” in 2016. This year Democrats busted one of their own cherished myths by proving that Republican gerrymanders weren’t preventing them from retaking the House of Representatives. There’s a lesson here for voters and judges.

State legislatures have been drawing congressional boundaries to favor one party or another since America’s founding. During the 40 years of sustained Democratic control of the House in the late 20th century, this worked in the Democrats’ favor. As political scientist Matt Grossmann has shown, Democrats sometimes enjoyed congressional majorities nearly 10 percentage points larger than their share of the House popular vote.

Then came the Republican romp of 2010, followed by the Census and the regular 10-year redistricting to reflect population ebb and flow across the U.S. The new GOP majorities in several states drew districts that increased their representation in the House, as Democrats also did where they had a partisan advantage.

For many commentators the post-2010 redistricting created a crisis of democracy by supposedly locking Democrats out of power. Days before the 2018 election the New York Times’ David Leonhardt cited Republican gerrymandering as evidence that the U.S. could “slide toward Hungarian autocracy.”

Well, so much for that. Democrats last week made their largest gain in House seats since 1974 and appear to be closing in on a 233-seat House majority with several races still not called. This means Democrats will hold about 53.6% of seats—a 7.1% edge. And, what do you know, Democratic House candidates nationwide have 52.8% of votes—7.3% more than Republicans, according to the latest Cook Political Report tally.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/doubling-down-on-mueller-1542326829

With the midterms over, Washington returns to its regular programming: Russia. Trump critics should consider the risk of betting their political fortunes on special counsel Robert Mueller.

The Mueller probe has lost its political potency, as Democrats acknowledged on the midterm trail. They didn’t win House seats by warning of Russian collusion. They didn’t even talk about it. Most voters don’t care, or don’t care to hear about it. A CNN exit poll found 54% of respondents think the Russia probe is “politically motivated”; a 46% plurality disapprove of Mr. Mueller’s handling of it.

That hasn’t stopped Democrats from fixating on it since the election, in particular when President Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and named Matthew Whitaker as a temporary replacement. The left now insists the appointment is unconstitutional or that because Mr. Whitaker once voiced skepticism on the Russia-collusion narrative, he is unfit to oversee the Mueller investigation and must recuse himself.

The joke here is that neither Mr. Whitaker nor anybody else is likely to exercise any authority over Mr. Mueller—and more’s the pity. The probe has meandered along for 18 months, notching records for leaks and derivative prosecutions, though all indications are it has accomplished little by way of its initial mandate.

As a practical matter, Mr. Mueller should have been brought to heel some time ago. As a political matter, that won’t happen. The administration has always understood that such a move would provoke bipartisan political blowback, ignite a new “coverup” scandal, and maybe trigger impeachment. It’s even more unlikely officials would risk those consequences now, as Mr. Mueller is said to be wrapping up.

Democrats know this, as does the grandstanding Sen. Jeff Flake. Yet they demand a Whitaker recusal and are again pushing legislation to “protect” the special counsel’s probe. Senate Republicans rightly blocked that bill this week, partly on grounds that it is likely unconstitutional. They also made the obvious point that if Mr. Trump intended to fire Mr. Mueller, he’d have done so months ago and wouldn’t need to ax Mr. Sessions to do it. And while the president tweets ceaseless criticism of the probe, he has never threatened to end it.

Democrats are nonetheless doubling down on the probe for political advantage. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared members of his caucus will demand that language making it more difficult to fire Mr. Mueller be included in a spending bill that needs to pass before the end of the current legislative session. Mr. Flake is offering an assist, saying that he will block any judicial nominees in committee until a Mueller protection bill gets a Senate floor vote. Over in the House, incoming Democratic committee chairmen, led by soon-to-be Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, are vowing an investigation blitz focused on collusion with Russia. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ungracious-mr-gillum-1542329873

Florida finished its machine recount of close election races on Thursday, and Republican candidate for Governor Ron DeSantis retained his lead outside the 0.25% threshold for a hand recount. That should mean the race is over. Yet Democrat Andrew Gillum refused to concede, in a display of ill-grace that won’t help his political future in Florida.

“A vote denied is justice denied—the State of Florida must count every legally cast vote,” Mr. Gillum said in a statement after the state’s 3 p.m. deadline for counties to finish counting had passed. “As today’s unofficial reports and recent court proceedings make clear, there are tens of thousands of votes that have yet to be counted.”

Mr. Gillum didn’t say it, but he’s counting on judicial intervention from the lawsuits filed by Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson to conjure more ballots from somewhere, anywhere to change the outcome. Mr. Nelson trails Republican Rick Scott by 0.154%, so that race will now proceed to a hand recount. But one of those legal Hail Marys failed Thursday when a judge denied a request to count ballots without matching signatures. Neither Democrat is likely to win, but in the name of “counting every vote” they want to overturn normal vote-counting practice.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/15/kamala-harris-draws-comparison-between-ice-and-kkk/
– The Washington Times – Thursday, November 15, 2018

Senate Democrats compared ICE to the Ku Klux Klan Thursday, saying the agency’s deportation officers have earned an evil perception among “many” people, and it’s up to the acting chief to change that.

“Do you see any parallels?” Sen. Kamala Harris asked of Ronald D. Vitiello, the acting director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, during a confirmation hearing for his nomination to become permanent director.

Mr Vitiello flatly rejected the comparison, saying there was no parallel, and demanded to know whether the senator was really trying to draw an equivalency.

The exchange was spurred by a series of questions Ms. Harris asked related to a social media post Mr. Vitiello made early this decade referring to the Democratic Party as “neo-Klanist.” He apologized for the post, calling it an attempt at a joke that he now realizes was hurtful and inappropriate.

“It was wrong to do,” he said.

Ms. Harris, though, asked him why the words were wrong, and he said it was because of the history of the KKK using violence and intimidation to achieve its social aims. That’s when the senator said the same perception exists of ICE.

“I see no perception that puts ICE in the same category as the KKK,” Mr. Vitiello retorted.

Ms. Harris’s line of questions drew a rebuke from Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.