Questions Arise on Arizona, Nevada’s Results Taking Days While Florida’s Took Just a Couple Hours

Published Nov. 10, 2022, 10:33 a.m. ET | Updated Nov. 10, 2022

GOP Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt (left), GOP Arizona gubernatorial candidate (right) (Gage Skidmore).
GOP Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt (left), GOP Arizona gubernatorial candidate (right) (Gage Skidmore).

TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – Tuesday’s 2022 election was over in Florida before the night began.

A vast majority of Florida’s Republican-favored results were in by 8 p.m. EST. Upwards of 8 million Floridians voted this cycle, with millions of those votes already reported to the major networks within the hour.

Races were called early largely due to the presumed GOP landslide and a historic flipping of blue counties like Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, leaving no path to victory for statewide Democrats. But critics of other states’ elections, like Nevada and Arizona, took to social media pointing out Florida still must count millions more ballots.

Florida is one of the quickest states to count their votes despite being one of the largest states. Gov. Ron DeSantis has made it a priority of his administration since he was elected to secure elections and promote efficiency.

The governor suspended the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Susan Bucher, and accepted the resignation of Brenda Snipes in Broward County.

“During the 2018 General Election, Florida had 65 out of 67 counties that ran good elections. Supervisor Bucher demonstrated she was unable to comply with the laws of our state and her duties as the Supervisor of Elections and failed to accurately report information related to the number of ballots that had been cast. For these reasons, I am suspending Susan Bucher as Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, effective immediately. It is time to turn the page in Palm Beach County to ensure accountability and transparency from our elections officials,” DeSantis said in 2019, immediately after taking office.

“Today, we turn our attention to the need to restore faith in our elections processes here in Florida.”

The trend continued, with DeSantis more recently appointing Cord Byrd to the Secretary of State position. “Cord Byrd has been an ally of freedom and democracy in the Florida Legislature, and I am confident he will carry that mission forward as Secretary of State,” DeSantis said.  “I look forward to his successes ensuring Florida’s elections remain safe, secure and well-administered.”

DeSantis chose Byrd because of his advocacy for election security, public integrity, and fight against big tech censorship. Byrd has served in the Florida House of Representatives since 2016. He served six years on the Public Integrity and Elections Committee. 

As the election approached, Byrd visited all of Florida’s 67 counties to ensure efficiency and integrity of the results.

Byrd’s office said he met with Supervisors, their staff, toured election facilities, and discussed preparations leading up to Nov. 8’s election.

“Our state is committed to the highest standards of election integrity which is why I am proud to have completed visits with all 67 Supervisors of Elections,” said Byrd. “I was able to see firsthand their operations and the security measures they employ to safeguard the election in accordance with state law. The Supervisors are ready for this election, and now is the time for you to be election ready and go vote.”

Byrd conducted “extensive outreach” with Supervisors in counties impacted by Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in the state late last month. In the week following the storm, he met with Supervisors of Southwest Florida to ensure voters had access to ballots.

The efforts continued from the Sunshine State governor with a new Election Crimes and Security Office, part of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. They made their first arrests over the summer, which supporters said, while the arrests are small compared to the general electorate, promote confidence and dilligence.

“I also want to be very clear going forward that we’re going to continue to make sure that our laws are rigorously enforced,” DeSantis said.

Attorney General Ashley Moody, also re-elected in a landslide, called it heartbreaking that polls show 20% of Americans have faith in their elections. “That skepticism spans party lines and we cannot accept that,” Moody said.

Shortly before the election, Florida announced the arrest of a woman for allegedly voting in multiple states in the past few elections.

At the time of reporting, Nov. 10 – two days after Election Day – the statewide races in Arizona and Nevada have yet to be called by any major network. Arizona still has more than 20% of the vote to count, and Nevada has just over 10% left. The statewide races are still up in the air.

Compared to Florida, Nevada has counted just under 1 million votes and will end up counting around that quantity. Arizona will end up counting more than 1 million, both paling in comparison to Florida’s totals.

Polls in the west close hours later than Florida, which closes most of its polls at 7 p.m. EST and the Panhandle at 8 p.m. EST.

Even in 2018, with DeSantis winning by a hair over Democrat Andrew Gillum by 0.4%, that statewide race was called before midnight. Days later in Arizona and Nevada, no statewide calls have been made.

Christina Pushaw, who was the Rapid Response Director for the DeSantis campaign, reminded viewers that Florida was just recently rammed by borderline Category 5 Hurricane in late-September, with repairs extending well into October and present day.

Share This Post

Latest News

4.5 2 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments