I was on Fox News with Neil Cavuto to talk about the voting recount.
CAVUTO: . . . Now to the potential fallout. We have got attorney Gayle Trotter joining us. Gayle, the process could take how long? Let’s say you do a machine recount. You do it across the state then, right, I mean, every single county and jurisdiction, right?
GAYLE TROTTER, INDEPENDENT WOMEN’S FORUM: That’s right. And it could take weeks.
We saw this happen in 2000 with the presidential election, and it goes on, and there’s not certitude on this, particularly when you see that the process itself is being flouted and the rules are being ignored.
So, as we go forward, if they continue to ignore the very specific rules that are designed to promote voter integrity and to make sure that the casts are — the votes are cast and tabulated in a fair process, where both candidates can understand the process and have updates, then you can see that this will be dragged out.
We have already had lawsuits filed. And as soon as the courts get involved in this as well, it definitely also has the possibility of extending things further than they should be extended.
CAVUTO: You know, Gayle, I remember with the Gore-Bush, Bush-Gore recount, I mean, there was criticism about certain counties getting recounts and others not and that, in retrospect, the Gore folks might have erred by focusing on only what they thought were their — their strong counties, the Palm Beach, et cetera, Broward.
Wouldn’t you know those are the same counties in question here. They are disproportionately Democrat, but the Scott folks are saying, we don’t know the universe we’re looking at here, right? We don’t know how many ballads, period…
TROTTER: Right.
CAVUTO: … right or left, we’re talking about, right?
TROTTER: Right. And every American should be concerned about that, because if you don’t know how many ballots they are going through and tabulating, then you can add ballots.
And we have seen through the history of elections in this county, the recent history, there have been a lot of problems. There have been a lot of lawsuits. There have been sanctions against Broward County for irregularities, for violating the law.
And we saw news reports this week that there was an entire lockbox filled with — it said possibly with provisional ballots, and the highest importance of a board of supervisors or election — elections, to make sure that they are able to conduct elections in a fair manner, well, certainly, this is not the case in this situation.
And Rick Scott is rightfully challenging this in court to make sure that the votes of all Floridians are respected, because, if this process is not in accordance with law, then you’re disenfranchising eligible voters.
CAVUTO: Now, if there’s a statewide recount, Republican counties, Democratic counties, the Panhandle, everywhere, Republican, counting all military ballots, all absentee ballots, is it your understanding that that would satisfy the governor, satisfy Democrats as well, that it is going to be a full recount, it’s going to be a full recount of everything from everywhere?
TROTTER: Well, and think of how expensive that is. That is really putting public expenditures.
CAVUTO: But isn’t that automatic? I was under the impression it was when it got under half-a-percent.
TROTTER: Right.
But it shouldn’t have been. Rick Scott was ahead by 55,000 votes on Tuesday. And as we continue to have these votes come in that were not — the Florida law required that the total number of votes be released by 30 minutes after the day of the election when the polls were closed.
So that wouldn’t have been the case. But now we see that it is the case.
CAVUTO: So, don’t know the — we don’t know the total number of votes. That’s part of his beef, right?
TROTTER: Correct. Correct.
CAVUTO: OK. Understood. Understood.
All right. Gayle, thank you very, very much, Gayle Trotter.
