Florida Republicans Pushing for Audits in State Donald Trump Won in 2020

Some Republicans in Florida want the state to conduct an audit of the 2020 presidential election in the state despite the fact that former President Donald Trump won there.

Supporters of the former president, including some state-level Republican officials, have called for audits of the election as Trump has continued to push unfounded claims that the election was "stolen" from him.

Trump defeated President Joe Biden in Florida with 51.2 percent of the vote to Biden's 47.9 percent. That was a margin of more than 300,000 votes and he also won the state in 2016.

However, the Republican Party of Lake County, Florida has called for an audit of the election in late September.

A statement on their website said: "The Lake County, Florida Republican Party unanimously approved five resolutions to send to all Florida State legislators demanding legislative actions to improve election integrity.

"Many voters of all parties are angry at the findings of election fraud around the states and this is the first action responding to constant Republican concerns about election integrity in Florida," they said.

The Lake County Republicans' first resolution was "Demanding a Forensic Audit of the Nov. 3, 2020 Election."

"Many voters are concerned that the Nov. 3, 2020 election was inaccurate due to many reports, and court and legislative hearings since that date," the party's statement said.

Their resolutions were sent to Governor Ron DeSantis, state legislators and other elected officials. Republican State Representative Anthony Sabatini, who is from Lake County, has filed a bill seeking to have the legislature review the election.

"It's not about margin of victory," Sabatini said. "The fact is that people want total verification of the election results. They want an independent review of the votes."

The Lake County Republicans backed Sabatini's bill in their resolutions and noted it called on DeSantis to "appoint an independent third party to conduct a forensic audit of the 2020 general election for every Florida County over 250,000 in population." That would include Lake County.

The group further asked "every elected official to support the bill and demand they support full, independent forensic audits of all elections in every state and other specified actions."

Lake County Republican Chair Walter Price told The Orlando Sentinel on October 5 that the party's resolutions were partly based on MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's claims about fraud in the election.

"Some of that information in that research originated from some of that research that Mike Lindell was doing," Price said. "So that's part of the reason. There's a lot of statistical anomalies that just jump out."

Price reportedly would not tell the newspaper whether he believed there was fraud in 2020 or if Biden had been elected legitimately.

Governor DeSantis, who is a Republican, appeared to rule out reviewing the 2020 election last week, saying: "What we do in Florida is, there's a pre-and post-election audit that happens automatically. So, that has happened. It passed with flying colors in terms of how that's going."

Florida is not the only state Trump won where some Republicans are seeking to review the election. Officials in Texas have said they will review the 2020 votes after Trump sent a letter to Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, pushing for a forensic audit. Trump won Texas in 2020 by more than 600,000 votes.

A recent audit of election results in Maricopa County, Arizona and publicly backed by Trump did not show evidence of election fraud and reaffirmed Biden's win there. That audit was widely criticized for its methods and for pursuing conspiracy theories.