A federal judge on Saturday issued a scathing rebuke to Florida’s top election official in an order cancelling a hearing on a lawsuit over vote-by-mail ballots.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker accused Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner of delaying a hearing on the lawsuit “so that he could use every second available to run out the clock” so there wouldn’t be enough time to address problems raised in the lawsuit. The judge also said Detzner’s actions amounted to an “undeclared war’ on the right to vote in Florida, the largest swing state in the presidential election.
The judge in Tallahassee, Florida said he will make a decision on the lawsuit without a hearing that had been set for Monday….
After the lawsuit was filed earlier this month, the judge held a scheduling hearing. The Secretary of State’s Office requested a week to respond to the lawsuit and later the notified the judge that no witnesses or evidence would be presented at Monday’s hearing.
“If one were skeptical, it would appear that the Florida Secretary of State requested as much time as he felt he could possibly justify so that he could use every second available to run out the clock,” the judge wrote. “And by wasting a week on his scintillating response, he quite nearly succeeded.”