Enough with the useless recounts

Enough is enough. We go through this almost every time there is an election. “I lost, so I want a recount!” or “I won! We don’t need a recount!” I get that everyone wants to win. It really hurts when you lose something that you spent so much time and energy on. However, we need to be reasonable. Recounts have become a major part of elections ever since the 2000 presidential election in which only one state, Florida, made the difference in who won. Within that state, the two presidential candidates were separated by roughly 2,000 votes prior to the recount with the Republican leading. But after the recount, there was a difference of 1,000 votes with the Republican candidate still winning. Since that election, we have seen a number of close recounts, but they rarely change the outcome. And what we learned is that unless the race is within about 2,000 votes, the recount is just a waste of time. So with this in mind, let’s look at the 2018 midterm races:

In the case of Florida, there are two major races that are within the .5% margin that automatically triggers a machine vote recount in that state. The Senate race between current Democratic Senator Bill Nelson and Republican Governor Rick Scott are separated by just over 12,000 votes, with Scott winning. This is way outside of the maximum 2,000 vote swing found in previous elections. For Democrats to think that there can be that large of a swing to their side, they must be dreaming. In addition, the governor’s race is even further apart, separated by over 30,000 votes with Republican Representative Ron DeSantis leading over Democratic Mayor Andrew Gillum. If they think that this race has any potential to swing, they really just don’t understand how voting works.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this election in three particular counties — Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach — due to previous election issues there. These counties tend to be heavily Democratic, almost to an unusual level. Even the supervisor of elections in Broward County has come under fire for her past performance in miscounting ballots and overall election mismanagement. This has prompted multiple lawsuits from Republicans and Democrats to try to ensure a fair election. In short, Florida is a mess, and the Democrats need to bow out with some grace and accept defeat.