MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Hundreds of thousands of people across South Florida and millions across the state have either cast their ballot, or will do so on Election Day Tuesday.
As the polls close, you can bet both Democrats and Republicans will be watching, with a legal microscope.
Nelson Diaz is an attorney, poll-watcher, and Chair of the Miami-Dade GOP.
“I’m not terribly concerned with absentee ballot fraud, I’m more concerned with things like the Post Office not delivering the ballots in time, as we saw this week,” Diaz said. “We just want to make sure that every ballot that is cast and put into a machine is a valid ballot.”
The coronavirus pandemic has fueled a large number of early and mail-in ballots.
The very real possibility of razor thin margins in the election, the outcome of which we very well may not know for days beyond election night, has all political camps a-political, including telling their political counsel to, essentially, stand back and stand by.
Chuck Lichtman is lead counsel with the Florida Democratic Party and explained protocol that is in place should any problems arise.
“We have teams in place in all the 67 counties in Florida that are trained in voter protection, they understand the election laws, they know how to assist voters appropriately, subject to constraints in the law, and we will have lawyers working in the polls as watchers,” Lichtman said. “Everyone should go and vote and have confidence that their vote will be counted.”
Tetiana Anderson is with the non-partisan Lawyers Committee For Civil Rights Under Law.
“We’ve got some 42,000 volunteer lawyers who are working the phones at 866-OUR-VOTE, we have 32 command centers all across the country, some of them in Florida, that are working, right now, to address the concerns of voters, so that they can make sure that their vote counts,” Anderson said. “Regardless of who they cast their ballot for, their vote should count. We are here to help them”