ORLANDO, Fla. — Lake County Republicans are the latest GOP group to echo former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud by demanding a statewide forensic audit of Florida, a state Trump won by almost 372,000 votes.
In a letter and two resolutions unanimously approved last week and sent to Florida GOP leaders, the Lake County Republican Executive Committee claimed “a majority of citizens doubt that the November 3, 2020, election was conducted openly and fairly” and “doubt the number of legal votes cast for each candidate equals the reported and certified results, in Lake County, the State of Florida, and the United States.”
The Lake County GOP said it “demands” that the Legislature conduct an “immediate, open, transparent and independent full forensic audit, including a hand recount” of Lake County and the entire state, “at least as thorough as the audit being conducted in Maricopa County, Arizona.”
Trump received almost 60% of the vote in Lake County over President Joe Biden in 2020, and won Florida by 51% to 48%.
Despite DeSantis’ praise for how the state conducted the election, he later called for and signed a controversial election law that significantly reduced drop boxes and added new restrictions for mail-in ballots and canvassing.
Asked about the call for the audit, Helen Aguirre Ferre, Republican Party of Florida executive director, didn’t say whether or not the state party supported it.
Despite the controversy, similar audits are being sought in other states Biden won, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump also has called for an audit in Texas, a state he won by more than 600,000 votes.
Biden received 306 Electoral College votes to then-president Trump’s 232. In the popular vote, Biden won by a difference of more than 7 million.
