VOTE 2020

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida and Georgia’s lawmakers sounded off, following Wednesday afternoon’s siege on Capitol Hill by President Trump’s supporters. Senator Marco Rubio tweet in opposition of the violent protest, saying:There is nothing patriotic about what is occurring on Capitol Hill. — Rep. John Rutherford (@RepRutherfordFL) January 6, 2021News4Jax spoke with Congressman Rutherford last night before the certification proceedings resumed. he said despite the violent events that took place on Capitol Hill, he still planned to object to President-elect Joe Biden’s certification. Senator Loeffler was defeated in one of two historic Senate runoff races on January 5th.

The same thing nearly happened in Florida during the 2000 recount. A resolution was proposed to appoint electors for president and vice president who would be ordered to vote for a specific candidate. John McKay was the Senate president at the time. What nearly happened in Florida 20 years ago likely would have set a precedent for today’s legislatures in contested states. And the window for any state legislatures to vote is narrowing.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and his allies are taking increasingly frantic steps to subvert the results of the 2020 election, including summoning state legislators to the White House as part of a longshot bid to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. Election law experts see it as the last, dying gasps of the Trump campaign and say Biden is certain to walk into the Oval Office come January. But there has been no evidence of impropriety or fraud in Michigan, election officials have said. But election officials across the country have said repeatedly there was no widespread fraud. In northwestern Arizona, Mohave County officials postponed their certification.

ATLANTA – A second Georgia county has uncovered a trove of votes not previously included in election results, but the additional votes won’t change the overall outcome of the presidential race, the secretary of state’s office said Tuesday. Election officials on Monday said Floyd County, in north Georgia, had found more than 2,500 ballots that hadn’t been previously scanned. Both counties will have to recertify their results, and the margin between Trump and Biden will be about 13,000 votes when those previously uncounted votes are accounted for, Sterling said. The audit was done on a random sample of voting machines from Cobb, Douglas, Floyd, Morgan, Paulding and Spalding counties. The equipment tested included the touchscreen voting machines, precinct scanners and absentee ballot scanners.

ATLANTA – A hand tally of the presidential race in Georgia has turned up more than 2,500 votes in one county that weren’t previously counted, but election officials said Monday that isn’t expected to alter the overall outcome of the race. County election board Chairman Tom Rees said it appears the roughly 2,500 ballots were cast during in-person early voting but election officials weren’t sure how they were missed. But the county had the paper ballots and caught the problem during the hand tally, he said. County election officials were instructed to start the count by 9 a.m. last Friday and to finish it by 11:59 p.m. this Wednesday. Raffensperger acknowledged last week that the hand tally would be a “heavy lift” for the counties.

Election workers in teams of two began counting ballots Friday in counties across Georgia, a hand tally of the presidential race that stems from an audit required by a new state law. Across the state, audit teams worked with batches of paper ballots, dividing them into piles for each candidate, before counting each pile by hand. Glynn County Board of Elections Presidential Ballot Recount Day 1 Glynn County Board of Elections Presidential Ballot Recount. The county elections department has been hard hit by the coronavirus. But critics have accused him of caving to Trump after the president’s campaign and state Republicans requested a hand recount.

“There’s a way that we can rein all this in,” said Dr. Lynda Ulrich. Her advice about breaking the grip of post-election stress syndrome deals with focusing on some positives. She said that happens after you acknowledge those political ads are like the rest of marketing. “And then it doesn’t really matter which side of the political equation you’re on. Ulrich explained her four shifts needed to end the election stress for you:

We’ve heard your concerns about the election results, and we will continue to report the facts. We didn’t win the election,” Clinton said during her concession speech. Clinton and the Democrats didn’t really accept the outcome, according to News4Jax political analyst Rick Mullaney. “Joe Biden has 290 electoral votes because they haven’t finished counting in Georgia, but Georgia appears to be trending towards Joe Biden,” Mullaney explained. And we will continue to report the facts of the election provided to us by election officials counting the votes.

In Duval County, members of the Hispanic community say they saw more campaigns targeting their votes this year. “Most politicians, the wise politicians, at some point or another have addressed the Hispanic community,” said Hispanic voter Carlos Bouvier. Out of 37,496 Hispanics registered to vote in Duval County, 9,289 are Republicans, 14,597 are Democrats and 13,004 have no party affiliation. “I come from an island where we have a big government with high taxes," said Hispanic voter Emilio Ruiz. Hispanic voters say also in their minds while voting were responses to disaster relief and passing the minimum wage.

An audit of one race is required before election results are certified by the state, and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday that he had selected the presidential race. For the audit, county election staffers will work with the paper ballots in batches, dividing them into piles for each candidate. Then they will count each pile by hand, Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said. There is no mandatory recount law in Georgia, but state law provides that option to a trailing candidate if the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. Brad Raffensperger was going to get tested and plans to self-quarantine as a precaution even if his test is negative, Fuchs said.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Times are tense right now and that’s made many of you upset with the coverage of the 2020 presidential election. From President Donald Trump to his top supporters, there’s a lot of doubt in the election results and the free press. This sentiment spills over into local news coverage, like what we’ve been doing WJXT for 71 years. Social media followers have dropped across the board at most local news outlets since the results of the election. They cannot rely on unfounded claims on social media.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody signed on Monday to a brief aimed at convincing the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that allowed Pennsylvania elections officials to count some late-arriving absentee ballots. Moody was one of 10 Republicans attorneys general who filed the brief in a challenge to a decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that allowed counting absentee ballots received up to three days after the Nov. 3 election. The case is one of a flurry of lawsuits filed by Republicans alleging potential ballot fraud in various states. The GOP attorneys general in Monday’s brief said the decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court “exacerbated the risks of ballot fraud” in the key swing state. The brief was filed by Moody and the attorneys general of Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As President Donald Trump’s campaign continues to make allegations of fraud and systemic problems in last week’s election, without enough evidence in court, he will not be able to overturn his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden. News4Jax on Monday spoke with legal experts about what it will take for Trump to have any hope of overturning the election but didn’t speak with one attorney or analyst who thinks this is an easy path for the president. The most critical state where Trump would need to win a lawsuit would be in Pennsylvania. Some wonder whether Trump would have more success in the U.S. Supreme Court, where he has installed three justices during his term. There are some critical deadlines Trump’s legal process is fighting against to win in court.

The 2020 election continues to focus on Georgia. First and foremost, former Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden will become the 46th president of the United States," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. I believe the President may have legal challenges underway in five states.”While Schumer and McConnell disagree in Washington, D.C., Georgia is fighting through election controversy. Buddy Carter, who represents Southeast Georgia and was just reelected to the House of Representatives. Carter said the election dispute is about fairness -- not whether someone is Republican or Democrat.

Nearly a week after Election Day, many Americans are still questioning the results, making claims of voter fraud and illegal votes being counted. ClaimOne claim is that illegal votes were counted in the 2020 election and that helped Joe Biden become the projected president-elect. It’s a corrupt system”That statement has put focus on states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada -- states he claims he won. Trump stated there were 100 million mail-in ballots. That meant mail-in ballots couldn’t be opened until after the polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

The Trump campaign is contesting the election results, which project Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential race. Trump campaign officials have been sending out flurries of text messages and emails urging supporters to contribute to the president’s court challenges in five battleground states. But a closer look at the fine print reveals that a portion of the money is going somewhere unexpected. Joe Biden’s campaign also launched a fundraising effort called the Biden Fight Fund in anticipation of the drawn-out legal battle. Bannon pleaded not guilty in federal court in August and could face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.

Biden jogged onto the stage wearing a black suit, black mask and light blue tie. His presidential campaign announced that Biden and his wife, Jill, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff will appear at a drive-in rally outside the convention center in Wilmington, Delaware. Vice president-elect Kamala Harris said voters have “ushered in a new day for America.”Harris said voters chose hope, unity, decency, science and truth in choosing she and Biden over Trump. Harris, the first woman to be elected vice president, wore a white pantsuit in tribute to women’s suffrage. Harris will also be the first Black woman to serve as vice president.

Dr. Jill BidenJill Biden, wife of Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, speaks during a drive-in rally at Heinz Field, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, in Pittsburgh. All rights reserved)The president-elect’s second wife and the former second lady of the United States married Joe Biden in 1977. Hunter Biden is a lawyer and investment consultant. Hunter Biden was discharged from the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine. “There’s addiction in every family,” Hunter Biden has been quoted as saying.

It’s magnified the ideological rift across the country, cost people friendships and even torn families apart — there’s no question the 2020 election has been polarizing. But no matter what final outcome awaits the American people, this election has made one thing clear: we are a nation divided. With that in mind, we want to know how you think we can come together. You’re not aloneTaking things a step further, what (if anything) will you do to help our country heal? Tell us what you think

Because votes are counted state by state, verdicts by the media outlets' decision desks serve as the unofficial finish line for the presidential race. The closeness of the race in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina proved another challenge. “We just have to be certain before we call a winner in the presidential election,” said Sally Buzbee, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP. Heading into Saturday, CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC — which coordinate their vote counts and exit polls — had Biden at 253 electoral votes. All know that calling a presidential election wrong is a career-wrecker.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The COVID-19 pandemic and the “Big Blue Wall” of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were what turned the 2020 presidential election in favor of president-elect Joe Biden, according to News4Jax political analyst Rick Mullaney. Mullaney said it was fitting that Biden’s birth state of Pennsylvania was the one to propel him over the top. Mullaney said Biden’s projected victory hinged on several key moments, including his win in the South Carolina primary and the reaction to the candidates' first debate. “Prior to South Carolina, Joe Biden was a long shot. South Carolina really changed everything,” Mullaney said.

___HEALTH CAREThe health care law known as “Obamacare” was a hallmark of the Obama administration, and Biden wants to build on that to provide coverage for all. On prescription drugs, Biden supports legislation allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for government programs as well as private payers. Also similar to Trump, Biden would allow importation of prescription drugs, subject to safety checks. Biden wants to invite all democratic nations to a summit to discuss how to fight corruption, thwart authoritarianism and support human rights. __TRADELike Trump, Biden accuses China of violating international trade rules, subsidizing its companies and stealing U.S. intellectual property.

We asked you to summarize the 2020 election using three family-friendly words. — BettyJoe Biden Wins! — RobertaSad American Day. — GloriTypical 2020 day. — Angel46 46 46 — RodrickCrunchy, salty, spicy.

World leaders congratulated U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on his victory, cheering it as an opportunity to fortify global democracy and celebrating the significance of Americans having their first female vice president. Other leaders who sent congratulations included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Still, Iraqi President Barham Salih tweeted his congratulations to Biden, describing him as a friend and trusted partner. His rival, Juan Guaido, also thanked Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for their “firmness and determination” in confronting Maduro. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who struck up a cordial working relationship with Trump, also avoided congratulating Joe Biden.

Text of a statement from President Donald Trump on the election result:"We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. In Pennsylvania, for example, our legal observers were not permitted meaningful access to watch the counting process. The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots. It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters. I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”The above statement was issued while Trump was golfing Saturday at his club in Virginia.

Barack ObamaFormer President Barack Obama tweeted: “Congratulations to my friends, @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris — our next President and Vice President of the United States.”Congratulations to my friends, @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris — our next President and Vice President of the United States. Now we have a President-Elect and Vice President-Elect who will serve all of us and bring us all together. #adayofcelebration — B.A.Priestly Jackson (@Priestjax) November 7, 2020Florida Democratic PartyFlorida Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo released the following statement:"Congratulations to President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are ready to go to work for American families. #justsaying #PatriotsHoldTheLine #CountEveryLegalVote — Kat Cammack (@Kat_Cammack) November 7, 2020Mitt RomneySen. Mitt Romney said: “Ann and I extend our congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.”Ann and I extend our congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – News4Jax has been asking Republicans in Florida to respond to the President’s accusations of voter fraud in his race against former Vice President Joe Biden. I do have faith in America to get our election system right,” Fischer said. Fischer on Friday addressed the claims from Trump, who says there is widespread election fraud, a claim the News4JAX Trust Index rates as “not true.”Fischer says there’s cause for concern and called for patience. “Count every legal vote, right, I don’t want a legal vote has been cast to not be counted, but I also don’t want any votes that may not be legal to be counted either,” Fischer said. “Every legal vote should be counted.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A lot of people who wanted to avoid waiting in lines to vote in the presidential election mailed their ballots. But they did so not knowing if their ballot would arrive at the election office in time because even regular mail was arriving slow. DeJoy then said mail-in ballots might not make it to election offices in time because of the delays in mail processing. And that’s what many people did which is why the presidential race was not called on the night of the election. “Some states counted their mail-in ballots first.

As votes are counted across the country to determine who will be the next President of the United States, there are a lot of accusations of fraud and misconduct, some coming directly from the incumbent, President Donald Trump. “All of the recent Biden claimed states will be legally challenged by us for voter fraud and state election fraud. Another one of President Trump’s tweets claims election observers were banned from watching ballot counting. News4Jax Political Analyst Rick Mullaney says it’s going to be an uphill battle for President Trump legally if the margin of defeat continues to grow. So based on information from elections supervisors, and political experts, we give these claims by Trump a rating of not true on our Trust Index.

MIDDLEBURG, Fla. – Sarah Baker has taught social studies and geography at Middleburg High for 15 years. My upper-level classes are leaning one way and my lower level another way,” said Baker. As a public high school teacher, Baker is not allowed to have an opinion and to teach the subject she’s asked her students to do the same. “So this kind of gives them an idea that the size of state doesn’t matter because this is a mismatch looking United States.”Whoever wins each state gets the electoral votes, whichever candidate gets 270 electoral votes, wins. Number two: we’re in the middle of a pandemic, and number 3: mail-in ballots are huge this year,” explained Baker.

ATLANTA – Democrat Joe Biden took a narrow lead over President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Georgia early Friday morning. State officials couldn’t immediately provide the number of uncured absentee ballots. Provisional lists are kept at the county level, and there are thousands outstanding statewide that county officials will decide on whether to count by Friday. Donald Trump Jr. spoke Thursday evening at an event in Atlanta, along with several Georgia elected officials and decried the process. Meanwhile, outside the State Farm Arena where the final Georgia votes are being counted, we have a growing crowd.

“If overtime is required when all of the votes have been counted, we’re ready and we will win,” Perdue campaign manager Ben Fry said in a statement. Ossoff’s campaign manager, Ellen Foster, said in a statement that the campaign is “confident that Jon Ossoff’s historic performance in Georgia has forced Senator David Perdue” into a runoff. U.S. Senate - Georgia: David Perdue, Jon Ossoff, Shane Hazel If no candidate receives 50% of the vote, top two candidates advance to Jan. 5 runoff. Georgia’s other U.S. Senate race is headed to a Jan. 5 runoff between GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock. Democrats haven’t won a Senate race in Georgia in two decades, but Republican dominance in statewide races has been slipping in recent elections.

WASHINGTON – A handful of pivotal states remained in play Thursday in the tightly contested U.S. presidential race. Ballots left to count. As long as those ballots are postmarked by Nov. 3, state election officials have until Nov. 12 to count them. And when it comes to mail ballots, Biden was outperforming Trump. ___PENNSYLVANIA: Hundreds of thousands of votes left to be counted.

Using the Associated Press VoteCast tool, News4Jax has access to thousands of surveyed voters in the Peach State. Data from VoteCast shows why the state was so close, closer than in previous election cycles. Among Black voters, Trump did not do well. However, Trump did do much better among white voters in Georgia in this survey beating Biden 69% to 29%. Nationally, vote-by-mail voters tended to support Biden and that was the case in Georgia.

Even before Trump officially notched his win Tuesday night in Florida, some Democrats were calling for a state party shakeup. Eskamani said her re-election came with marginal support from the Florida Democratic Party, adding that her political committee contributed more than $35,000 to help other candidates. Throughout the day Wednesday, pressure mounted for the ouster of Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo and party executive director Juan Peñalosa. Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat, acknowledged that Florida Democrats “suffered some hard losses” on election night. “The Democrats almost bragged about not going door to door, saying, ‘We’re not going to do that, COVID, blah blah blah blah blah,’ and it came to bear on Election Day,” he said.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Chris Hoffman has become the first woman to be elected as the mayor of Jacksonville Beach, defeating Jeanell Wilson with 70% of the vote. I run the Beaches Museum, so I live in the beaches history all day, every day," Hoffman said. Hoffman says she grew up in a military family that laid down roots in Jacksonville Beach. The Fletcher High School graduate said one of her goals as mayor is to revive downtown. “The coolest thing and the best thing is we’ve all gotten along in the past anyway," said Neptune Beach Mayor Elaine Brown.

There are some major changes for the Clay County school district. There has also been a major shift on the Clay County School Board. Longtime School Board member Carol Studdard, who has been a board member for almost three decades, lost to Beth Clark. The other headline of note in Clay County is Studdard losing her re-election bid for the first time. District officials tell News4Jax wanted this new tax hike to be a sales tax so it wasn’t specifically funded only by property owners in Clay County.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida voters approved an amendment raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next six years. On Wednesday, News4Jax spoke with a couple of small business owners about the impact that the change will have on business. Amendment 2, which was approved by a supermajority of Florida voters, will raise Florida’s minimum wage gradually over the next six years. 2 - Raising minimum wage Raises the state’s minimum wage to $10 per hour effective Sept. 30, 2021, and increase it each Sept. 30 thereafter by $1 until the minimum wage reaches $15 per hour on Sept. 30, 2026. From that point forward, future minimum wage increases shall revert to being adjusted annually for inflation.

As of Wednesday evening, it’s still unclear which presidential candidate will capture Georgia and all of its 16 electoral votes. Of the more than 3,200 Georgia voters asked, 38% said it was the most important issue facing the country. Biden faired better with those voters who said the coronavirus and racism were important issues, while Trump did better with Georgia voters who said the economy, immigration and law enforcement were the most important issues. Early Wednesday, Trump prematurely claimed he carried Georgia — and several other states that were too early to call. The AP survey asked voters in Georgia how confident they are that votes will be counted accurately.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For decades, Florida has been in the national spotlight on Election Night when it comes to ballot counts. Tuesday night was no different, except this time, Florida did everything right, perhaps learning on the lessons from the 2000 election. Ron DeSantis praised the state’s election officials' handling of the ballot count. Florida is one of the many states that processed mail-in ballots before election day. When asked how hard it is to change the process, Holland responded:“It really comes in the state’s -- the pressure and desire for them to change.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Even though Duval County finished the overall counting of ballots, the canvassing board is still working to make sure every legitimate vote is accepted. By Saturday, the elections results in Duval County have to be certified and sent to the state. The canvassing board is also looking at vote-by-mail ballot where signatures don’t match the signature on file. That could have put a kink in Duval County elections results. Chris Hand, a lawyer for the Duval County Democratic Party, was one of those who raised the objection.

Elections results versus pre-election polls are two very different showings. Several polls had former Vice President Joe Biden winning the election and even him turning Florida blue. While we still do not know the winner of the 2020 presidential election, we know Florida did not go blue. This includes the results to many pre-election polls. Florida is a battleground state that some polls anticipated could flip from red to blue.

4:36 a.m.Former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are in a dead heat in the race for Georgia. Currently, former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by just 11,438 votes statewide. The latest counts gives Trump’s Democratic challenger Joe Biden a small lead, but the race is still too early to call. The electoral vote has former vice president Joe Biden in front of President Donald Trump, 238-213, at this point. Mullaney adds an update on Wisconsin that helps out former vice president Joe Biden in the race for the White House.

Supporters of President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump gathered outside the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. 4:36 a.m. FridayFormer Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are in a dead heat in the race for Georgia. Dozens of angry supporters of President Donald Trump converged on vote-counting center in Detroit, Michigan and Phoenix, Arizona. The electoral vote has former vice president Joe Biden in front of President Donald Trump, 238-213, at this point. The big rigs moved through Downtown Jacksonville on Tuesday afternoon, blaring horns in support of President Donald Trump.

AP VoteCast found that 42% of Florida voters said the United States is on the right track, and 57% of voters said it is headed in the wrong direction. The AP called the race for Trump in Florida. I think he’s done an excellent job.”Both Black voters and Latino voters were more likely to support Biden. The survey of 3,584 voters in Florida was conducted for eight days, concluding as polls closed. The survey combines a random sample of registered voters drawn from the state voter file and self-identified registered voters selected from nonprobability online panels.

Ron DeSantis on Wednesday criticized the national media coverage of the presidential election Tuesday night and praised Florida’s efficient count of more than 11 million votes. “Perhaps 2020 was the year that we finally vanquished the ghosts of Bush versus Gore,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Tallahassee. Florida election results were tabulated quickly in the swing state Tuesday night while other key states are still counting votes and may be for days to come. “The people are actually looking at Florida, and asking the question, ‘Why can’t the states be more like Florida?’” DeSantis said. Biden flipped Arizona, according to the Associated Press, a state that has reliably voted Republican in recent elections.

There’s no doubt that Election Day this year was one for the books. After record-setting early voting, people still showed up in droves on Election Day to cast their ballot. Below are 10 photos -- all from Getty Images -- that give an indication of how different this Election Day looked. (2020 Getty Images)Protesters march through the streets around Black Lives Matter Plaza on Nov. 3 in Washington DC. (2020 Getty Images)Did you feel things were different this year?

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida voters on Tuesday agreed to return 23 appellate judges to the bench, along with Florida Supreme Court Justice Carlos Muñiz. Ron DeSantis appointed Muñiz to the state Supreme Court last year. State law requires Florida Supreme Court justices and appeals court judges to be placed on the ballot for retention in nonpartisan elections within the first year of appointment. Florida voters overwhelmingly retained all of the appellate court judges up for retention this year, including Nordby and five other 1st District Court of Appeal judges -- Joseph Lewis Jr., Scott Makar, Tim Osteraus, Clay Roberts and Adam Tannenbaum. Voters also retained 4th District Court of Appeal Judges Alan O. Forst, Mark W. Klingensmith and Martha C. Warner.

Incumbent Republican District Attorney Jackie Johnson was defeated by Independent Keith Higgins in the race for Brunswick Judicial Circuit. More than two months passed before Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, were charged with felony murder and aggravated assault. Gregory McMichael had been a longtime investigator for Johnson’s office. Johnson recused herself but handed the case off to a second district attorney. Barnhill was eventually removed over his own conflict of interest -- his son works for Johnson and had prosecuted an earlier case against Arbery.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Despite record numbers of mail ballots and early voting, Florida’s secretary of state said the state saw medium to high turnout on Election Day. She said the election went smoothly here, but there were isolated issues. Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee reported the state’s election systems were not compromised by cyberattacks and called the election a success. “And what we have seen today is an example of incredible teamwork between Florida’s voters, our poll workers and our supervisors of elections,” Lee said. Lee also noted voters were well mannered and respectful at the polls.