Republican pollster Conor Maguire on Monday pointed to the controversy surrounding the recount in Florida’s Senate race as evidence that state election officials are incapable of overseeing the electoral process.
“Local officials have shown that they cannot handle this,” Maguire told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”
“It’s not good enough to just want to do a good job as an elections official,” he said.
Florida’s Senate race is heading to an automatic recount, conjuring up memories of the 2000 presidential election that was decided after scrutiny over ballots and voting practices in the state.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), who’s the GOP nominee for Senate, has faced criticism for his handling of last week’s midterm elections, some of which Maguire says is unjustified.
“For Rick Scott to call for law enforcement to secure the ballot boxes after at night when they close down, I don’t see why that’s a big deal,” Maguire said. “But I think it does get a lot of Republicans pissed off when you have certain members of the news media and Democrats saying that Rick Scott is a dictator for wanting to secure these ballots, and putting these measures in.”
Maguire’s comments come after Scott alleged voting fraud in the state’s Senate election amid the race’s recount.
Scott filed a pair of emergency injunctions on Sunday requesting that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and county sheriffs impound ballots and voting machines in the county when they’re not in use. A Broward County circuit judge on Monday denied the injunctions.
— Julia Manchester
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