Florida headed for recounts over ‘fraud’

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Key results in this week’s US elections hung in the balance on Thursday (Friday in Manila), two headed for recounts.

The Republican challenger in Florida’s closely fought Senate seat, said he was suing two election

contest narrowed.

“The people of Florida deserve fairness and transparency,” Rick Scott told reporters.

“Every Floridian should be concerned there may be rampant fraud happening in Palm Beach and Broward Counties.”

Scott, who is the state’s sitting governor, said he was ordering an of

The dramatic announcement prompted a tweet from President Donald Trump alleging a “big corruption scandal” while fellow Republican Marco Rubio accused Democrats of a coordinated effort to “steal the election.”

Florida was also the site of

2000 presidential election.

Those were halted by the US Su preme Court, and George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 537 votes in Florida, giving him the edge in the electoral college and handing him the White House.

Both Scott’s race for the Sen ate—against Democrat incumbent Bill Nelson—and the state’s gover nor election appeared headed for mandatory recounts.

Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate for governor in neigh boring Georgia was threatening legal action to ensure all votes were counted in her contest.

Another Senate race in south western Arizona that was previ ously called in favor of a Repub lican candidate was tilting toward the Democrat on Thursday night,

The developments looked set to raise partisan tensions to fresh highs 48 hours after polls closed in US midterm elections that saw Demo crats seize control of the House of Representatives, while Republicans maintained their grip on the Senate.

‘Ready for any outcome’

Scott’s lawsuits alleged a lack of transparency over the counting process and asked that further details be made public, as his lead continued to shrink to around 15,000 votes.

President Donald Trump, under

general, leapt on the news.

“Law Enforcement is look ing into another big corruption scandal having to do with Elec tion Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach,” he tweeted. “Florida voted for Rick Scott!”

Rancor was also spilling into governors’ races, where Andrew Gillum in Florida and Stacey Abrams in Georgia were aiming

American leaders, but the contests were tilting in favor of their Repub lican rivals.

endorsed Republican, by just 38,515 votes out of 8.1 million cast, or 0.47 percentage points.

Since Tuesday’s election, “it has become clear there are many more uncounted ballots than was originally reported,” Gillum spokeswoman Johanna Cervone said, amid reports that ballots had already counted, 24,700 residents voted for a governor candidate but did not pick a candidate for Senate.

The unusual pattern appeared in no other Florida county, the newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, Abrams trailed Georgia secretary of state Brian Kemp by 1.3 percent in their gover nor’s race, but her campaign com plained that Kemp proclaimed victory prematurely.

“All the votes haven’t been counted,” Abrams lawyer John Chandler told reporters, adding there were outstanding absentee and provisional ballots.

“We will litigate until we have determined that every person’s vote has been counted,” Chandler said.

Kemp is currently on 50.3 percent of the vote. Under Georgia law if that share falls below 50 percent it would