Tampa

OK, let’s ease off on the Flori-Duh pedal please. The somewhat inaccurate refrain heard over and over across the news-sphere over the past few days is, “Florida is having trouble counting votes again.” Wrong. Florida is not having trouble counting votes. Broward and Palm Beach counties are. And these two counties have been where the problems have popped up in cycle after cycle.

Palm Beach and Broward counties are large Democrat strongholds in the Southeast part of the state where so many transplants from the Northeast live the area is sometimes referred to as Baja New Jersey. (OK, there are probably more New Yorkers there. But somehow Baja New Jersey sounds funnier.)

These new “Floridians,” many of whom are quite nice prosecution stipulates, tend to bring their crackpot voting habits with them. They’re often not nimble enough to see the connection between their left politics and the reasons why they felt the need, other than avoiding cold winters, to abandon their original homes for Florida. As a result Democrats more often than not carry these counties in the 70 percent range. This is why Republicans are concerned that the blue wave that didn’t wash over the county Election Day and night seems to be materializing in these counties after the election. (Not to mention in Arizona, where Republican Senate candidate Martha McSally carried Election Day but Democrat Krysten Sinema is cleaning McSally’s clock in the After Election Day vote.)

After Election Day, Broward County alone found 93,000 more votes still to be counted. Figure that out with 70 percent going to Democrats and you can see how Republican Rick Scott’s Election Night lead of 56,000 votes over Democrat incumbent U.S. Senator Bill Nelson has dropped to about 12,500 votes faster than you can say Al Franken.

The one-point lead Scott enjoyed Tuesday night, at last count, was at .15 percent, well within the quarter of one percent margin calling for a hand recount. By statute such a count is required to be completed by Nov. 18. But it’s hard to find anyone familiar with these matters who believe it can be completed by then, especially as both sides have teams of lawyers ready to file more suits than you’d find at Men’s Wearhouse.

It remains a possibility that the race between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrats Andrew Gillum for governor may be over by next Thursday, the deadline for the machine recount made necessary by the fact that DeSantis’s lead of almost 34,000 votes still falls below the half of one percent margin that triggers a machine recount.

Floridians have much to celebrate on Thanksgiving. But one thing we may not be able to be thankful for is that the midterm elections, long in coming and much labored, are finally over.