Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Wednesday highlighted the fact that Florida counted millions of votes relatively quickly, getting results of major races on election night, but other states are taking “days” to count their ballots.

“If #Florida can count 7.5 million ballots in 5 hours how can it take days for some states to count less than 2 million?” Rubio, who enjoyed a decisive victory in his Senate race, asked:

The DeSantis campaign’s Christina Pushaw, as well as others, made similar observations.

“While we wait on counting in other states, Florida (pop 22 million) had votes counted on election night… weeks after a Cat4/5 HURRICANE destroyed precincts across several counties!!! Thank you Sec of State @CordByrd, local officials & @GovRonDeSantis for election integrity laws!” she wrote in part:

The remarks came the afternoon after the election, when several races still hang in the balance. As of this writing, the top of the ticket races in Arizona — Katie Hobbs (D) versus Kari Lake (R) for governor and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) against Blake Masters (R) — remained in the balance following issues in Maricopa County:

About 17,000 ballots in Maricopa County, or about 7% of the 275,000 dropped off Tuesday, were affected, officials said. There are about 4.5 million people in the county, which includes Phoenix, and about 2.4 million registered voters. More than 80% vote early, most by mail.

At issue at 60 of 223 vote centers were printers that did not produce dark enough markings on the ballots, Some voters who tried to insert their ballots into tabulators had to wait to use other machines or were told they could leave their ballots in a drop box. Those votes were expected to be counted Wednesday.

Results were also pending in other key races, including Nevada’s race between Republican U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt and Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).

Florida’s races, however, were called relatively quickly, with both Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) enjoying their victories early in the night.

In April, DeSantis signed election integrity legislation which built upon the legislation he signed the year prior, banning Zuckerberg bucks as well as ballot harvesting. The bill, signed in April 2022, in part increased penalties for ballot harvesting, required the annual renewal of voter rolls, and strengthened voter ID requirements. It also created the Office of Election Crime and Security, tasked with investigating allegations of voter fraud:

As Breitbart News reported:

“It is what is, at the same time, you know, you compare us to some of these other states, we did a better job, but there’s a lot that needs to be addressed,” [DeSantis] continued, explaining that last year, he signed “probably the strongest election integrity measures in the country,” requiring ID for requesting absentee ballots, banning ballot harvesting, and prohibiting Zuckerberg dollars.

Monday’s bill “builds up the success that we had last year,” the governor explained. For instance, the measure increases the penalties for ballot harvesting, making it a third degree felony. It also strengthens voter ID for mail-in ballots.

In August, Florida officials announced they were in the process of arresting 20 individuals who were charged with voter fraud.