Over the previous 4 years, candidates operating for workplace all around the nation have solid doubt on the integrity of elections. Many have taken their cues from former President Donald Trump, who continues to place forth baseless and false claims about rigged elections.
One newspaper’s editorial board had sufficient.
The Solar Sentinel in South Florida just lately refused to endorse a candidate for workplace, partly, due to that candidate’s claims of fraudulent elections. Not solely did the editorial board endorse the opposite candidate, it revealed a prolonged clarification, which included why it refused to even run a questionnaire despatched in by the candidate, which it mentioned was filled with “myths and falsehoods.”
And get this, the workplace in query was supervisor of elections in Palm Seashore County!
In a scathing piece, the Solar Sentinel editorial board wrote:
For the primary time, the Solar Sentinel Editorial Board is not going to publish on-line a questionnaire submitted by a candidate. It was submitted by Jeff Buongiorno, an elections conspiracy theorist and the Republican candidate for supervisor of elections in Palm Seashore County.
Buongiorno’s questionnaire is replete with myths and falsehoods. He doubts the reliability of Florida election outcomes as a result of, he mentioned, they can’t be “manually verified.” Voting tabulation machines are examined continuously and outcomes are audited, then licensed by a canvassing board normally chaired by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Buongiorno claims with out proof that “public belief in our elections has eroded to new lows,” when any distrust is essentially as a consequence of Donald Trump’s continued lie that he gained the 2020 election. Election leads to Florida are extraordinarily dependable.
Buongiorno actively works to undermine public religion in voting by mail. Citing a bunch referred to as Defend Florida, he claimed in his questionnaire that 20% of Florida’s mail ballots in 2020 had been solid by “phantom” voters who had been useless or who voted from phony addresses.
Actually? Greater than 11 million Floridians voted in 2020, so 20% of that will be greater than 2.2 million folks. Such claims are recklessly irresponsible and search solely to undermine religion in trustworthy elections. We want to publish all candidate questionnaires, however as a trusted media supply, we can not knowingly publish these falsehoods. We’re endorsing Wendy Sartory Hyperlink for Palm Seashore County supervisor of elections.
A gutsy and utterly applicable stance by the Solar Sentinel editorial board.
Steve Bousquet, the opinion editor and columnist for the Solar Sentinel who helped make the choice to not run Buongiorno’s questionnaire, informed me in an e mail, “We obtained two letters to the editor from readers on our choice, one strongly supportive and one extremely essential. One reader mentioned that the media has a duty to not perpetuate disinformation, and the opposite mentioned our choice was ‘insane’ and readers could make up their very own minds.”
Later, by telephone, Bousquet informed me that in its endorsement of Buongiorno’s opponent, the Solar Sentinel web site did embrace a 40-minute or so video interview with Buongiorno wherein he repeats lots of the false or deceptive claims from his questionnaire. Bousquet mentioned that he was conscious the information group could be accused of censorship for not printing Buongiorno’s feedback.
“However,” Bousquet mentioned, “we will’t be a transmission belt for blatant misinformation.”
This piece initially appeared in The Poynter Report, our day by day publication for everybody who cares concerning the media. Subscribe to The Poynter Report here.
