Scott Brings New Lawsuits Following Stories in Florida Senate and Governor Races

USA

Broward County's Election Planning Director, Joe D & # 39; Alessandro, told Fox News that Broward's machines currently require 3.5 million pages of ballots, and that the process could last more than 30 hours before the start of the counting.

All counties face a Thursday afternoon deadline to complete the recount. However, Susan Bucher, the Palm Beach County election supervisor, told reporters Sunday that she did not think her department would be able to meet the deadline due to outdated equipment. Under Florida law, if a county does not submit its results by the deadline, they are archived. The law does not allow the Florida Secretary of State to grant extensions.

The recount in most other major population centers, including the Miami-Dade and Pinellas and Hillsborough counties in the Tampa Bay area, went off without incident on Sunday. The smaller counties should start their exams Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

Broward County, the second most populous state, is emerging as the epicenter of controversy in the count. Broward officials stated that they erroneously counted 22 mail ballots that were rejected, mainly because the signature on the return envelope did not match the one on the record.

This is a problem that seems impossible to resolve because the ballots were mixed with 205 legal ballots. Snipes, long accused of mismanaging county elections and sanctioned by a judge for destroying ballots during a 2016 congressional race, said it would be unfair to throw out all the ballots.

"The #BrowardElections office admits that the number of votes submitted has indicated that there were 22 illegal votes," Florida's Senator Marco Rubio wrote on Twitter on Sunday. "We are aware of these 22 because they got caught breaking the law when we examined 202 ballots.How can we trust more illegal votes without their final count?" ? "

Under-voting – a phenomenon in which voters do not vote in all races on the ballot – has become a major problem in the race. Rubio pointed out that Broward County shows that the Senate race recorded about 25,000 fewer votes than the race for governor – which could be explained by the design of the Snipes ballot, which placed the Senate contest directly under the instructions of the ballot of vote, out of step with other races.

In 2006, the last time Nelson was registered on the ballot alongside a governorship race, 4,100 fewer people voted in the Senate race in relation to the governor's election.

"How ironic would it be if those who now refute our criticisms of Snipes end up arguing that a ballot design error made by her is the reason the Democrats have lost it?" Rubio said Sunday.

Other Republicans have suggested that Democrats should not hope the accounts are broken.

"Scott is ahead of DeSantis by 10,754 votes in Broward and Nelson on Gillum by 10,343," Fox told a Scott campaign source. "The idea that sub-votes in Broward County are an opportunity for Nelson to significantly reduce this gap is not and has never been based on anything but fantasy." . "

The recount in most other major population centers, including the Miami-Dade and Pinellas and Hillsborough counties in the Tampa Bay area, went off without incident on Sunday. The smaller counties should start their exams Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

Republicans have repeatedly shouted scandal throughout the process, in court and in front of Florida election offices. On Saturday, GOP representative Matt Gaetz compared Broward County to a "Banana Republic" and posted a video showing apparently that he was denied access to electoral facilities for reasons of " security".

Protesters chanted: "Lock her up" outside the building earlier in the day, referring to Snipes.

Rubio and other Florida officials have published numerous videos and images on social media, apparently showing cartridges of ballots left in public places or poorly loaded in private trucks.

At an emergency hearing Friday, Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips said that there was "a violation of the Florida Constitution" as well as the Public Records Act of the United States. State, by Broward officials who had not communicated the requested documents votes to count. But, Gaetz added, Florida authorities still prevent Republicans from controlling how they handle ballots.

"We have very specific laws in the state to try to prevent fraud," said host Chris Wallace of "the current governor of Florida" at "Fox News Sunday. ". "We had to go to court to force the election supervisor in Palm Beach and Broward counties to comply with the law, which aims to prevent fraud."

Scott added, "Senator Nelson is clearly trying to defraud to win this election, that's all." When asked to clarify his accusation, he replied, "That's his team."

"Senator Nelson is clearly trying to commit fraud to win this election."

– Rick Scott, GOP Senate Candidate

"His lawyers said a non-citizen should vote, that's it," Scott said. "Two, he went on trial and said that fraudulent ballots should be counted, ballots have already been thrown out because they are not properly made." He said that these should be counted.

JUDGE WITH RICK SCOTT, REPUBLICANS AND FLORID ELECTION ORDERS TO COMPLY WITH THE LAW

Nelson and Gillum's lawyers on Friday objected to a non-citizen rejecting the provisional poll, according to a transcript obtained by Fox News.

The incident occurred at a vote solicitation meeting in Palm Beach County, where provisional ballots were being considered. According to the draft transcript of the meeting, taken by a court reporter hired by the Republican Party of Florida, a provisional ballot had been excluded from the count because it came from a non-US citizen.

Nelson's campaign distanced itself from the objections she declared unauthorized.

Recounts are an unprecedented step in Florida, a state known for its election results decided by the lowest margins. State officials said they were not aware of any other time, a race for the governor or US Senate candidacy in Florida required a recount, not to mention the two at the same election.

Snipes, the Broward County election supervisor since 2003, is no stranger to the controversy. Earlier this year, Scott's administration announced that it was monitoring its office after a judge ruled in May that the county had violated federal law by destroying ballots during the 2016 Democratic Primary Race. Debbie Wasserman Schultz vs. Tim Canova, Politico reported.

Snipes said the problem was "exaggerated".

In August, a judge sided with the Florida GOP in challenging the way the county handled mail-order polls. Republicans claimed that Snipes' office opened votes privately, preventing people from challenging whether they were properly cast, according to Politico.

And then in 2016, Broward County broke the law by posting early voting results online even before polls closed, the Miami Herald reported.

TRUMP "LOOKING AHEAD" WHAT HAPPENS IN FLORIDA, SAYS MEDIATES TRY TO SELL ELECTIONS

As the recount proceeded, Republicans urged their Democratic opponents to give up and allow the state to move on to action.

The state election division, led by Scott, and the Florida law enforcement department said they found no evidence of electoral fraud. Gillum and Nelson argued that every vote should be counted and that the process could proceed.

Florida is also conducting a recount in a third race at the state level. Democrat Nikki Fried had a 0.07% lead over Republican state representative Matt Caldwell in the race for the agriculture commissioner, one of Florida's three-seat cabinet.

From a distant look, the stories could give rise to memories of the 2000 presidential recount, when it took Florida more than five weeks to declare George W. Bush the winner of Al Gore by 537 votes, giving so to Bush the presidency.

But a lot has changed since then. In 2000, each county had its own voting system. Many used punch cards – voters came out of the chads, leaving small holes in their ballots representing their candidates. Some voters, however, did not totally dismantle President Chad or gave him a little nudge. The prospecting councils had to examine the hanging and padded cages, a long, tedious and often subjective process that fueled the nightly comedians.

At present, the state requires all Florida counties to use ballots where voters use a pen to draw a circle next to the name of their candidate, much like a student does when they are in the same place. a multiple choice test. It also clearly indicates how the recount will unfold.

These ballots are now scanned in each county for the second time under the watchful eye of representatives of both parties and campaigns. Any ballot that can not be read for any recounted races will be set aside.

If the margin at the scale of the state of a race falls below 0.25 percentage point after counting machines, the state will order a manual recount in each county. At this point, only the ballots rejected for this race will be examined by counting the teams to determine whether the voters' intentions were obvious. For example, some voters circle the name of the candidate instead of correctly completing the ballot and some riffent their vote and then mark another candidate.

If one of the parties objects to the decision of a counting team or if the team can not take one, the ballot will be sent to the county solicitors' council, the three members voting for the final decision. Members are usually the county election supervisor, a judge, and the president of the county commissioners.

Peter Doocy, Ivonne Amor and Kathleen Reuschle of Fox News, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.