The Lake County Republican Party (FL) is urging state Republicans to audit the 2020 election.
Republican Governor. Ron DeSantis has reiterated the integrity of the state’s voting systems.
But, Lake County Republicans, including state Rep. Anthony Sabatini want an electoral review.
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Republican Governor. Members of their party are pushing Ron DeSantis, Republican Governor of Florida, and top conservative legislators in Tallahassee to audit the 2020 presidential elections results. This is despite President Donald Trump's comfortable win in Florida last year.
DeSantis, an ally of Trump and a potential 2024 GOP presidential contender, said that Florida "did it right" in administering the 2020 presidential election, but still signed off on restrictive voting measures passed by the conservative-dominated legislature in May.
The Lake County Republican Party, which is located in a rapidly growing and GOP-leaning area near Orlando, unanimously approved five resolutions that it would send to all Florida state legislators in support of a complete audit of the election results.
Trump beat Joe Biden, the incumbent president, in Florida last fall by 51.2% to 47.9%. The former president won the state of Florida with 5,668,731 votes while the current president received 5,297,045 votes. This is more than 371,000 votes.
Biden was successful in Duval County which includes Jacksonville and Orange County. But Trump won with Latino voters of crucial Miami-Dade County. This is a long-standing Democratic stronghold that must be dominated by the party to overcome GOP advantages in Southwest Florida and the Panhandle.
This push comes after Republican state Rep. Anthony Sabatini (who represents part of the county at the Florida House) filed House Bill 99 last month. It would allow an "independent third party" to perform a "forensic" audit.
Sabatini's bill, as it stands now, calls for audits in counties where there are more than 250,000 residents. This would impact many Democratic- and minority-heavy jurisdictions such as Orange, Broward and Palm Beach counties, as well as some GOP-leaning locales such as Lake, Brevard and Lee counties.
Sabatini told Politico recently that it's not about the margin of victory. "The truth is that people want complete verification of election results. They demand an independent review of votes.
Trump has encouraged GOP legislators to push for a review of results in key swing states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin.
Cyber Ninjas conducted a forensic audit for months of Arizona's Maricopa County results and found that Biden had won the state.
Former president has asked GOP lawmakers to do similar reviews in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and other states he won in 2016, but lost in 2020.
Trump has been claiming for months that the election was stolen without any evidence. This has set off a series of GOP-led voting restrictions at state level, which have frustrated Washington Democrats, who have written their own federal election reform bills, which have so far languished before Congress.
GOP Governor. Greg Abbott, Texas Governor, has been criticized for his defense of the push for audit in Texas' Lone Star State. Biden won that state by almost 6%.
None of the audits have so far found large-scale voting fraud.
Florida GOP Secretary of State Laurel Lee stated that a "forensic audit” was not necessary since county election officials tested the machines before the election, and then conducted random reviews following the election.
She stated that Florida's 2020 election was transparent and accurate and that it was in compliance with Florida law. "Florida has conducted both pre-elections and post-elections audits. We are confident in the integrity and security of our 2020 election results."
