Tone down recount rhetoric, judge says
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. • After Republicans, including President Donald Trump, made unsubstantiated accusations of illegal activity, a judge on Monday urged the warring sides in the Florida recount to “ramp down the rhetoric,” saying it erodes public confidence in the election for Senate and governor.
The state’s law enforcement arm and elections monitors have found no evidence of wrongdoing, but lawyers for the Republican party and candidates joined with Trump in alleging that irregularities, unethical behaviour and fraud have taken place since the polls closed last week.
“An honest vote count is no longer possible” in Florida, Trump declared Monday, without elaborating. He demanded that the election night results — which showed the Republicans leading based upon incomplete ballot counts — be used to determine the winner.
Trump went on to allege that “new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged” and that “ballots (are) massively infected.”
The recount that’s underway is mandated by state law.
Much of the Republicans’ ire was centred on Democrat-leaning Broward County and its Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, a Democrat who was appointed in 2003 by then-republican governor Jeb Bush. She’s been re-elected four times.
Trump’s comments came just hours before Broward Chief Circuit Chief Judge Jack Tuter held an emergency hearing on a request by lawyers for Republican Gov. Rick Scott, whose lead in the Senate race over incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson has narrowed with the counting of provisional and other ballots. They asked for additional sheriff ’s deputies to be sent to Snipes’ office to monitor ballots and voting machines.
State law requires a machine recount in races where the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. In the Senate race, Scott’s lead over Nelson was 0.14 percentage points. In the governor’s contest, unofficial results showed Republican former Rep. Ron Desantis ahead of Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by 0.41 percentage points.
Scott’s lawyers alleged that Snipes was engaging in “suspect and unlawful vote counting practices” that violate state law and that she might “destroy evidence of any errors, accidents or unlawful conduct.”
After Tuter told all sides to meet to discuss a compromise, they agreed to add three deputies to the elections office in Broward.