The Florida elections remain a mess. The heat has turned up even more since Governor Rick Scott announced last night he and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have decided to sue Broward County and Palm Beach County.
Scott is in a tight race with incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson.
Now it looks like Nelson has decided to sue “to extend the deadline for local election offices to turn in vote counts.”
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio blasted the Broward County election officials on Twitter last night. He pointed out that these same people violated the law two times before.
About six hours later, Scott announced his lawsuit in front of the governor’s mansion and he echoed the concerns shared with Rubio.
8:26: Rick Scott: “It has been over 48 hours since the polls closed” and ballots still being found in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, he said. “The people of Florida deserve fairness and transparency.” Scott said Florida voters should be concerned about “rampant fraud.”8:27 — Rick Scott: “We have just filed a lawsuit.””I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election.”It sounds like Scott is suing both Palm Beach and Broward counties. So far only the Broward lawsuit is available.8:29 — Rick Scott now giving the career of Sen. Bill Nelson’s hired lawyer, Marc Elias, a veteran recount attorney. Scott said he’s trying to “steal the election.” Scott said they’re “mysteriously finding more votes.”8:30 — “Some believe this is simply rank incompetence. That is certainly true,” Rick Scott said. But it would be naive to think they are overruling the will of the voters, he adds.Scott is asking for law enforcement to investigate immediately and he will use every legal options necessary, he said.
Jeff Weinsier from Florida station WPLG confronted Brenda Snipes, the Broward County Board of Elections Supervisor.
From WPLG:
“Could I please get a moment to go into the room and find out?” Snipes asked the group huddled around her. “OK, when I come back I’ll let you know.””But, Dr. Snipes, it is now Thursday,” Weinsier said. “We are still counting ballots in Broward County.””We’re counting five pages or six pages for each of the people who voted,” Snipes said.”But other counties have been able to do it,” Weinsier said.”But other counties didn’t have 600,000 votes out there,” Snipes shot back.”Well, Miami-Dade did,” Weinsier said.”Well, have you been inside my — never mind, let me go check. I’ll check,” Snipes said.”But it’s a serious issue. It always seems like…” Weinsier said before Snipes interrupted him.”It’s a serious issue with me,” she told him. “I’ve been doing this now since Oct. 22.””But if it’s a serious issue with you…” Weinsier said, only to be interrupted again.”We ran 22 sites, we ran 14 days, we ran 12 hours, we had a big vote by mail (during early voting), so don’t try to turn it around to make it seem like I’m making comedy out of this,” Snipes replied.Then Snipes walked away.
From Spectrum News:
In the election battle’s latest salvo, Sen. Bill Nelson’s campaign said Friday morning that it and state Democrats’ executive committee are suing Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner in Tallahassee federal court to extend the deadline for county Supervisor of Elections Offices to turn in unofficial vote counts.In a conference call, Nelson attorney Marc Elias said their lawsuit seeks to set a uniform standard for the adjudication of provisional ballots.About 15,000 votes separate Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Nelson in the U.S. Senate race. Elias said they think those votes will come from provisional ballots and county canvassing processes.
Marc Caputo at Politico tweeted that Nelson has also sued to stop rejection of ballots.
President Donald Trump told reporters the federal government may get involved. From The Guardian:
“What’s going on in Florida is a disgrace,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.Florida is expected to conduct a machine recount in the governor’s race between Andrew Gillum and Ron DeSantis, and a hand recount in the Senate race between Rick Scott and Bill Nelson. The Republicans are ahead in both races, but the margins have narrowed as votes continue to be counted.Trump cast doubt on the honesty of the recount process and said when asked if the federal government would get involved, “Well, it could be.”“And all of a sudden, they are finding votes out of nowhere. And Rick Scott, who won by, you know, it was close, but he won by a comfortable margin, every couple of hours it goes down a little bit,” Trump said. “He easily won, but every hour it seems to be going down. I think that people have to look at it very, very cautiously.”He went on to allege that “a lot of crooked stuff is going on,” without specifying what he was talking about.“It always seems to go the way of the Democrat,” he said. “There’s a lot of dishonesty.”
The Miami Herald listed where the races stand as of today.
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