Republican Ag Commissioner Candidate Explains Lawsuit Against Broward County Supervisor Of Elections

[Elderberry]

WLRN By Alejandra Martinez & Chris Remington 11/13/2018

---WLRN: What is the lawsuit specifically?

CALDWELL: The first step is just to get basic answers. Any supervisor in the state is able to tell you what kind of votes they had cast -- whether it is vote by-mail, early votes or Election Day votes -- and when those were tagged into the system in order to prove ... that they were cast before 7:00 on Tuesday night. And the Broward supervisor has been unable to answer that question. On Wednesday we asked, Thursday we asked, and Friday we asked ... so we ultimately filed a lawsuit just to produce all the records to see what that situation is.

How do you verify whether or not those were received on time or simply backlogged by the supervisor?

It depends on the kind of vote. Early voting ends on Sunday, so that's the easiest one to see. There's a situation here because two days later or 48 hours later [Snipes is] still not able to produce the results of the early vote. That raises some really interesting questions.

Your lawsuit references absentee ballots specifically.

Absentee ballots are another question. They are supposed to timestamp those to be able to demonstrate that they received them before 7:00. That's going to require you oftentimes to keep the envelope and the ballot so that you can prove it. It's really a pretty basic question.---

More: http://www.wlrn.org/post/republican-ag-commissioner-candidate-explains-lawsuit-against-broward-county-supervisor

[Elderberry]

Are people talking about guns in the midterms? They are in this Florida race

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article220668500.html

Where it is apparent, however, is in a race less watched: the race for commissioner of agriculture and consumer services between Caldwell and Broward County attorney Nikki Fried.

Fried, a Democrat who is endorsed by Everytown for Gun Safety, is not totally set apart from the gun issue. She owns a gun, holds a concealed weapons permit, and does not shy away from discussing it in debates and interviews.

She’s made it clear that she doesn’t want to stand in the way of people who seek out concealed weapons permits but intends to implement new procedures and safeguards in the department.

That department attracted unwanted attention earlier this year when it was found out that, for 13 months, the department stopped using results from an FBI crime database that ensures that those who apply to openly carry a gun in public do not have a disqualifying history in other states. The employee in charge of the program was unable to log into the system, and the problem went unresolved for more than a year.

But before Commissioner Adam Putnam was slammed for the breach, many Floridians didn’t even know that the agriculture commissioner oversaw that process. Now as the candidates vie to replace Putnam in the statewide office, they’ve been forced to take a stance on handling the department while appealing to the ideology of their respective voter bases — one that treasures the Second Amendment, and the other that calls for more gun control.

Caldwell is popular with gun lovers and gun institutions alike, and he has seized on the reputation. A mailer that went out a week before the primary shows photos of Caldwell shooting a gun, shaking hands in a cowboy hat and appearing on CNN after he voted no on a bill to debate assault weapons.

“Fried opposes your Second Amendment right to self-defense,” Hammer wrote. “If Fried gets elected, she will do everything she can to eliminate our gun rights. That is the plain truth.”