Something Stinks in Florida and Georgia

There was definitely a lot of good news from the midterms, but all of it was wrapped up a bow crafted from the thread by which our democracy is still barely hanging.

Voter suppression efforts of various stripes were reported around the country, and there are a number of races the outcomes of which just plain reek of election interference.

In particular, the governors' races in Florida and Georgia stink to high heaven.

Stacy Abrams refuses to concede in Georgia (GOOD!) and is vowing to keep fighting until every vote is counted:

"Democracy only works when we work for it, when we fight for it, when we demand it, and apparently today when we stand in line for hours to meet it at the ballot box," Abrams said in remarks to supporters at nearly 2 a.m. Wednesday. "I am here today to tell you there are votes remaining to be counted. Voices are waiting to be heard."

As of early Wednesday, Kemp led Abrams by about 3.1 percentage points, a difference of about 115,000 votes out of a total 3.75 million votes counted. That lead had narrowed by 5:15 a.m. to about 1.9 points and 75,000 votes out of 3.87 million counted. CBS News was characterizing the race as leaning Republican.

Before Abrams addressed the crowd, campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo said thousands of absentee and provisional ballots remained to be tallied.

"We have three factors to be considered here: outstanding votes, absentee ballots to be counted, and provisional ballots," Groh-Wargo said. "Given those three issues, we believe this is likely heading to a runoff."

Kemp is an unethical shit who refused to vacate his role as the Georgia secretary of state as he ran for governor, thus overseeing the election in which he was running. His anti-democratic behavior in Georgia is well-established, and we have no reason to believe that he inexplicably decided to set aside his manipulation of elections at the very moment when he has the most to personally benefit from such corruption.

Thankfully Abrams is hanging on, buying as much time as she can while the election is scrutinized.

In Florida, Andrew Gillum conceded quickly, but there is nothing that prevents him from rescinding his concession if the gubernatorial race results look fishy, which they do.

Black women in Florida voted 89% for Hillary in 2016. And we’re supposed to believe that that margin went DOWN BY 7 POINTS in 2018 for Gillum?! NO WAY! This is just NOT credible. Something is up.

— Pam Keith (@PamKeithFL) November 7, 2018

Both of these races are deeply troubling me this morning, and I hope that Democrats press for answers. I am particularly outraged that the most obvious fuckery has been deployed against Black candidates, which also makes our attention to the integrity (or lack thereof) of the elections all the more urgent.