It’s a simple point. Democrats are concentrated in large urban counties. Almost everywhere in the country, these counties take longer to count the vote than more sparsely populated exurban and rural areas. That’s hardly surprising. It’s not new. We’re seeing it in Arizona and Florida. In fact, we’re seeing it across the country. It’s just that those are states with Senate and governors races that remain undecided. If you stop counting the votes before the blue regions are done counting, that obviously helps the Republican candidates quite a lot. That’s exactly what Rick Scott is trying to do as of last night, just much more openly and brazenly than even Republican candidates have done in the past.
Governor Scott actually said this last night: “Late Tuesday night our win was projected about 57,000 votes. By Wednesday morning that lead dropped to 38,000 votes. By Wednesday evening, it was around 30,000 votes. This morning, it was around 21,000. Now, it is 15,000.”
It’s a remarkably candid statement. The red regions (mainly) are done counting. But as we count the votes in the blue regions, I’m falling behind! He’s now saying the voting has to stop now because of “rampant fraud” for which there is not the slightest hint of evidence.
Given where the remaining vote is, it’s quite clear that simply counting the votes – not recounting, reanalyzing or litigating anything – will lead to Scott losing. So he’s using his police powers as governor to do everything in his power to stop the counting now.
