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- Lake County, Fla., GOP is pressuring Republicans across the state to audit the 2020 election.
- Republican Governor Ron DeSantis reaffirmed the integrity of the state’s voting systems.
- However, Lake County Republicans, including State Representative Anthony Sabatini, want an electoral review.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and senior Tory lawmakers in Tallahassee are being pressured by members of their own party to verify the results of the 2020 presidential election, despite former President Donald Trump’s relatively comfortable victory in the State last year.
DeSantis, a Trump ally and a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate, said Florida “did well” in administering the 2020 presidential election, but still approved restrictive voting measures adopted by the government. Conservative-dominated legislature in May.
In late September, the Lake County Republican Party, based in a fast-growing, GOP-leaning jurisdiction near Orlando, unanimously approved five resolutions to be sent to every Florida state legislator to request an audit. complete election results.
Last fall, Trump defeated current President Joe Biden in Florida by a margin of 51.2% to 47.9% – the former president won the state with 5,668,731 votes, while the current president received 5,297,045 votes, an advantage of over 371,000 votes.
Biden has made inroads in populated towns like Duval County, which contains Jacksonville, and Orange County, which is anchored by Orlando, but Trump outperformed with Latino voters in crucial Miami-Dade County, a Longtime Democratic stronghold the party must dominate to counter the GOP’s advantages. in the Panhandle and southwestern Florida.
The push comes as GOP state representative Anthony Sabatini, who represents part of the county at Florida House, tabled Bill 99 last month, which would allow an “independent” third party to conduct a “forensic” audit of the results.
In its current form, Sabatini’s bill calls for audits in counties with populations over 250,000 – meaning the proposal would affect many Democratic and minority jurisdictions like Orange, Broward, Palm counties. Beach and Hillsborough – as well as some GOP-friendly places like Lake, Brevard, Lee and Polk counties.
“It is not about the margin of victory,” Sabatini recently told Politico. “The point is, people want full verification of election results. They want independent scrutiny of votes.”
The push comes as GOP lawmakers, encouraged by Trump, have called for a review of the results in pivotal states like Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Last month, a report by the Cyber Ninjas group, which conducted a month-long forensic audit of the results of the populated Maricopa County in Arizona, showed Biden won the state.
The former president has pressed GOP lawmakers for similar reviews in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, says he won in 2016 but lost in 2020.
For months, Trump alleged, without verifiable evidence, that the election was stolen from him, triggering a cascade of state-level GOP-led voting restrictions that frustrated Democrats in Washington who drafted their statements. own federal election reform bills that have so far languished in Congress.
GOP Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has come under fire for defending the demand for an audit in the Lone Star State, which the former president won by nearly 6% against Biden.
None of the audits conducted to date have revealed cases of large-scale electoral fraud.
In Florida, GOP Secretary of State Laurel Lee said a “forensic audit” was unnecessary as county election officials tested machines before the election and conducted random exams after the election. presidential.
“Florida’s election in 2020 was accurate, transparent and conducted under Florida law,” she said in a statement on Sabatini’s bill. “Florida has already conducted pre- and post-election audits, and we are confident in the safety and integrity of our 2020 election results.”
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