when escrow closes on a short-sell is there any grace period after the closing date?

If prices of STOCK generally fall on the date of the ex-date of a dividend why don’t people just short sell?

That day? Since it falls the price of the dividend.

What happens if you short sell a stock just before the dividend record date anticipating a drop in the price?

Are there complications with how the dividend is held in a short situation? Would I be responsible for those in one way or another and if so to who? (probably a broker)

Any insight or experience would be helpful. In particular I’m considering shorting a position of FRO as tomorrow they record the dividend.

Should I short sell this stock right before its ex-dividend date?

I’ve been studying this stock which pays approximately a $0.47 dividend each quarter. I’ve studied what happened with the stock price on the ex-dividend date for the past couple years and the stock has dropped by significantly more than $0.47 every time (usually around $1.00). Is there a reason to not short-sell this stock right before the ex-dividend date to try and make a profit off of this price drop?