Florida Senate Race Narrows; Trump spreads its complaint for fraud without proof: NPR

President Trump addresses reporters at the White House on Friday. The president has joined Florida governor Rick Scott to amplify electoral fraud claims in the state Senate race without evidence.

Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images

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Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images

President Trump addresses reporters at the White House on Friday. The president has joined Florida governor Rick Scott to amplify electoral fraud claims in the state Senate race without evidence.

Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images

A few days after the mid-term vote, while ballots are still counted, Republican lawmakers keep a tight lead in mid-term states alleging unfair play and electoral fraud. The claims were amplified by President Trump on Thursday night.

The current Florida governor, Rick Scott, locked in a tight race in the Senate, said at a press conference Thursday night that "the people of Florida deserve fairness and transparency and that the supervisors do not give it to us ".

"All Floridians should be worried about widespread election fraud in Palm Beach and Broward counties," he said. "I will not sit idly by while unethical Liberals are trying to steal this election from the great people of Florida."

Scott's race against outgoing Democratic Senator Bill Nelson appears to be about to trigger a mandatory recount. The Florida law states that any race in a margin of 0.5% must be recounted, and at 9 o'clock on Friday Nelson outscored Scott by 0.18%.

Previous allegations of widespread election fraud, including President Trump's claim that millions of people voted illegally in 2016, are considered false by the voting rights experts. An investigation, published in 2014, revealed 31 possible cases of voter fraud in person on more than one billion votes cast over a 14-year period.

Scott claimed victory on Tuesday night and sued two county election officials in Palm Beach and Broward counties, alleging that their offices had concealed the voting records.

President Donald Trump echoes Scott's claims, tweeting that "Law Enforcement" would look at election fraud in Florida on Thursday.

Nelson Elias election lawyer Marc Elias tweeted On Friday, "as the counties continue their work, I expect the margin to tighten further, and then the state will proceed with a methodical recount."

Trump has a habit of calling fraud, without providing evidence to back up his claims. No widespread claim of election fraud by the President has ever been proven. Trump even created a commission to investigate alleged fraud after the 2016 elections, but the group dissolved without his findings being published.

"They found votes coming from nowhere, and Rick Scott, who won by – was tight, but he won with a comfortable margin, he easily won, but every hour it seems to go down." Trump told the White House on Friday. . "I think people have to look at this very, very carefully."

In the case of Florida which still counts ballots more than 48 hours after polls close, David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told NPR that it was extremely common that a voting jurisdiction takes as long as Broward County.

"Election officials literally count the ballots, it's not about corruption or fraud," Becker said. m said. "It's literally the best of democracy, let the election officials do their job and count the votes."

Georgia: Republican Kemp says Abrams is trying to "create new votes"

In Georgia, governor candidate Stacey Abrams hopes to impose a second round on Republican opponent Brian Kemp, who resigned as secretary of state on Thursday.

Kemp has already claimed victory and his campaign issued a statement claiming that Abrams was trying to "steal" the elections in an audience room.

"The Abrams campaign is trying to create new votes because they know it's their last hope," said Ryan Mahoney, communications director of the Kemp campaign, in his release.

But the Abrams campaign maintains that she simply wants all provisional and absentee ballots to be counted before she decides to concede. The Associated Press did not call the race, and votes continued to be counted this week.

Kemp holds about 63,000 votes in advance, with 50.3 percent of nearly 4 million votes. He must finish above 50% to avoid a second round.

Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams campaign director, wrote on Twitter that if Kemp "cared for Georgians and that it was legitimate [governor]he would wait for the results to be certified. "

The campaign questioned a number of aspects of the state election administration, under the supervision of Kemp until yesterday, including the fact that hundreds of votes were collected during correspondence votes in Cobb County, according to the AP, after Kemp's office said that every summer was counted.

"He makes a joke about our electoral system and respects the fundamental rights," said Groh-Wargo. "It's ignoble."

He noted that many jurisdictions across the country are still compiling results. For example, on Thursday night, leading the Arizona Senate race, Democratic candidate Kyrsten Sinema was slightly ahead of Republican Martha McSally.

In California, more than 4 million votes have yet to be counted.

The Florida governor's race also seems set to be the subject of a mandatory recount, as successive votes this week have also pushed the race between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum under the threshold 0.5%.

Gillum already conceded the race on Tuesday night, but tweeted Thursday night after Scott announced his trial against the two election supervisors.

"Counting votes is not partisan, it's democracy," he said.