Fla. recounts stay on track despite more filed lawsuits
Nelson calls on Scott to recuse self in recount process
LAUDERHILL, Fla. — Acrimony in the Florida recount battle deepened Monday as Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called on his Republican opponent, Gov. Rick Scott, to recuse himself from overseeing the process and President Donald Trump alleged without evidence that ballots were missing and forged.
As local officials scrambled to meet Thursday’s machine-recount deadline, lawsuits mounted from all sides — including a complaint by the League of Women Voters and Common Cause Florida seeking to bar Scott from using his position to influence the ballot-counting process.
Earlier Monday, a state judge rejected a request from Scott to seize voting machines and ballots in closely watched Broward County, ruling there was no evidence of voter fraud.
Scott pressed forward with plans to travel to Washington this week for orientation activities designed for newly elected senators.
“He’ll be heading up probably tomorrow night,” his campaign spokesman, Chris Hartline, said.
Machine recounts in Florida’s races for governor, Senate and agriculture commissioner were ordered Saturday because of tight margins in the votes and became the focus of lawsuits by candidates. A more-complicated hand recount could follow in the Senate race depending on the margin of victory.
The results in the country’s largest swing state will have repercussions in Washington, D.C., where a win by Scott would help Republicans further consolidate their Senate majority.
Monday began with a combative tweet from Trump claiming that “an honest vote count is no longer possible” and that ballots had been “massively infected.” He argued that the results from the night of the Nov. 6 election should stand, handing victories to Scott and to Republican former congressman Ron DeSantis in the gubernatorial contest.
“The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged,” the president said in a tweet that misstated what Florida officials have concluded.
Under state law, ballots from overseas and military voters have until Friday to arrive to be counted.
White House officials did not respond to requests for comment about whether the president was referring to those ballots.
On the ground, both campaigns began mobilizing thousands of volunteers amid mounting legal challenges.
Rebuffing Scott’s campaign, state Judge Jack Tuter ruled against the governor’s request to have local sheriffs seize ballots and machines in Broward County not in use in the recount. Tuter said that there was no evidence of voter fraud and that Brenda Snipes, the county election supervisor, needs to be allowed to do her job and finish the count.
Tuter also appeared to admonish the Scott team for suggesting voter fraud without offering evidence.
“Everything the lawyers are saying out there at the elections office is being beamed out across the country. We should be careful what we say,” Tuter said. “These words mean things these days, as everybody in the room knows.”
Tuter’s ruling was on one of at least nine lawsuits that have been filed over the recounts. Scott also has sued to impound ballots and equipment in Palm Beach, although there has not yet been a hearing on that suit.
New lawsuits filed Monday include one filed on behalf of VoteVets, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee asking that all mailin ballots postmarked by last Tuesday be counted. Under current rules, ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
A separate suit by the League of Women Voters and the nonprofit watchdog group Common Cause Florida asks to bar Scott from using “the power of his office in any manner related to Florida’s 2018 Senate race as long as he remains a candidate.”
Scott’s “misuse of his official powers in favor of his own candidacy demonstrates the truth of the axiom that no man may be the judge in his own cause,” the lawsuit stated.
The suit echoes Nelson’s call earlier Monday for Scott to recuse himself from the recount.
“He’s thrown around words like voter fraud without any proof,” Nelson said.
In a Fox News television appearance earlier, Scott called Nelson a “sore loser” and alleged that “he’s just here to steal this election.”
On Wednesday, a court will hear a request from Nelson to re-examine absentee and provisional ballots not counted because signatures did not match.