Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott is filing a lawsuit demanding an investigation into the ballot counts of a very close Senate election race, accusing “unethical liberals” of trying to take the election from him.
Scott is currently in a dead-heat race for Florida Senate, trending just ahead of incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson. Scott has 50.1 percent of the votes (4,094,881) while Nelson is trailing with just 49.9 percent of the votes (4,079,813). That is just about 15,000 vote lead, putting it well below the .5 percent margin that triggers an automatic machine recount, as NBC notes.
Scott is still insisting that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigate the new ballot counts , accusing Broward County and Palm Beach County supervisors of elections of “rampant fraud.”
“Every day since the election the left-wing activists in Broward County have been coming up with more and more ballots out of nowhere,” Scott railed. “I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try and steal this election from the great people of Florida.”
The National Republicans Senatorial Committee is standing behind their guy, joining Scott to file a lawsuit against both Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes and Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher for failing to provide information to officials.
Even President Donald trump is getting involved, tweeting that “law enforcement” would be looking into election fraud in the two counties.
Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018
His opponent, Nelson, blasted Scott’s outrage, saying that his action “appears to be politically motivated and borne out of desperation.”
The goal here is to see that all the votes in Florida are counted and counted accurately. Rick Scott’s action appears to be politically motivated and borne out of desperation. https://t.co/ewN4eT8tXU
— Nelson for U.S. Senate (@NelsonForSenate) November 9, 2018
And the senate race is not the only hot button issue currently in Florida, the gubernatorial race between Democrat Andrew Gillum, who could be the first black governor in the state, and Republican Ron DeSantis seems to be well on its way toward a recount as well.
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