Florida’s Fort Lauderdale airport was shut down for over an hour on the evening of Nov. 11 because of a report of a “suspicious package.”
Not only were passengers not permitted to approach the airport, the media was excluded as well.
The Broward County Sheriff’s office tweeted on Nov. 11, that “Our deputies and bomb squad are responding to a report of a suspicious package outside @FLLFlyer Terminal 4.”
Our deputies and bomb squad are responding to a report of a suspicious package outside @FLLFlyer Terminal 4. https://t.co/rEXixyrYX4
— Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) November 12, 2018
At 6:39 p.m. the Broward Sheriff tweeted, “Our deputies have deemed the package safe, and issued an all-clear.”
What was the “suspicious package”?
Investigative journalist Laura Loomer believes it was a box of provisional ballots from the Nov. 6 election.
A person inside the airport told Loomer that a box marked “provisional” and a box of supplies from the Supervisor of Elections was found in the back of an Avis rental car. According to Townhall.com, the car had just been returned by a Broward County employee.
An Avis employee called the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, (FDLE) which is investigating the election on orders from Governor Rick Scott.
An hour later the Sheriff’s office shut down all access to the airport.
VIDEO: A police officer just told me the #FortLauderdale airport may be shut down for another 1 to 2 hours per the order of Broward Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff Scott Israel.
Even members of the media are being denied entry at the moment. #BrowardCounty pic.twitter.com/oDdBazaOpt
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 12, 2018
EXCLUSIVE PHOTOs: An SOE box w/ the word “PROVISIONAL” was found by an @Avis employee in the back of a rental car at #FortLauderdaleAirport tonight. Last person to drive the car was a Broward County employee with @Broward.org email address. @browardsheriff responded to scene. pic.twitter.com/Zc3NjtZVvz
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 12, 2018
Richard DeNapoli, the Broward Republican Party State Committee representative, showed up on the scene before the Sheriff’s office shut down access and personally saw the election equipment and the ballot box, Loomer reported.
“@RichardDeNapoli and I have been in contact all night as soon as I got word of the provisional box. I spoke with him while he was inside the @Avis office at Fort Lauderdale Airport tonight,” Loomer tweeted.
.@RichardDeNapoli, a Broward GOP State Committeeman arrived on scene before police blocked off the entrance to the airport and was able to get video of @browardsheriff officers responding to @Avis to document ballot box. Why did BSO shut down the airport over a fake bomb scare?
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 12, 2018
A Mess of an Election
There has been plenty of controversy surrounding the 2018 election in the state of Florida. Three important races are going to recount, several lawsuits have been filed, numerous ballots have been lost; more have been found.
Accusations of voter fraud have been flying. Even President Donald Trump got involved.
Florida Governor Rick Scott not only sued the Supervisors of Elections in two counties, but also ordered a police investigation into the election.
#Florida law requires counties report early voting & vote-by-mail within 30 minutes after polls close. 43 hours after polls closed 2 Democrat strongholds #BrowardCounty & #PalmBeachCounty are still counting & refusing to disclose how many ballots they have left to count. #Sayfie pic.twitter.com/ReXCaOzkZP
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 8, 2018
Whether the issue is fraud or incompetence, there is no way entire boxes of ballots should be lost—or been lost and then found. State law requires election returns to be posted the day of the election—Broward County was still counting ballots three days after the election.
Florida’s Secretary of State announced on Nov. 10, that there would be machine recounts in the Governor’s, Agriculture Commissioner’s and Senate races. He also set a cut-off on noon on Saturday for ballots to be collected. Thus the ballots found at the Fort Lauderdale Avis store might not count.
But that in itself should be considered a criminal offense. Those ballots represent the votes of Americans and Florida residents, people who valued their votes and made the effort to cast them.
Florida Congressman Marco Rubio tweeted the perfect summation for the 2018 election in Florida: “How will our nation peacefully settle its political differences if elections lose their credibility because of lawlessness?”
