"What is was, wasn't football"

Nothing is more badly reported by the media than a lawsuit, and no lawsuits are more badly reported than Florida elections lawsuits.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio- more a water boy than a coach on the best of days- played Sidelines Expert the other day as he tweeted from the partisan gutter:

Imagine if NFL team was trailing 24-22 but in final seconds hits a 3 pt kick to win. Then AFTER game lawyers for losing team get a judge to order rules changed so that last second field goals are only 1 point

Well that’s how democrat lawyers plan to steal #Florida election 1/4

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 14, 2018

The twitterverse promptly dispatched Little Marco to the locker room:

I am being roasted for ‘3 pt kick’ tweet about election? Why? You think everyone who follows politics knows what a field goal is?

Besides,it’s absurd to claim I don’t know what a field goal is... that’s all my Dolphins have scored for 9 straight quarters https://t.co/PWc8QlrVd2

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 14, 2018

A Florida federal judge was not impressed:

Consider the game of football. Football fans may quibble about the substance of the rules, but no one quibbles that rules are necessary to play the game. See generally Nat’l Football League, 2018 Official Playing Rules of the National Football League (2018).

And no one quibbles that football referees make certain calls, under the rules, that deserve review. Indeed, not every call is going to be clear—the ultimate decision may hinge on highly subjective factors. Hence, a call will be overturned only when there is “clear and obvious visual evidence available that warrants the change.”

Among other things, the 2018 NFL Rules allow video review for plays involving possession, boundary lines, the line of scrimmage, and the goal line. See id. The NFL likewise provides review for disqualification of players. Id. Coaches may challenge calls themselves by throwing a red flag, or, in certain circumstances, the referees may initiate review on their own.

All that process. Just for a game.

In this case, the Plaintiffs have thrown a red flag. But this is not football. Rather, this is a case about the precious and fundamental right to vote—the right preservative of all other rights. And it is about the right of a voter to have his or her vote counted.

There is no doubt there must be election laws. There is no doubt that to run an election, the state must impose deadlines and rules to govern an efficient and transparent election process. There is no doubt that election officials must make certain calls, under the rules, that deserve review. And there is no doubt some of those calls may hinge on highly subjective factors. 

The precise issue in this case is whether Florida’s law that allows county election officials to reject vote-by-mail and provisional ballots for mismatched signatures—with no standards, an illusory process to cure, and no process to challenge the rejection— passes constitutional muster. The answer is simple. It does not.