Florida accounts begin as both sides fight

The races in Florida, which were widely compared to the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election, are among several unresolved races after polling day. In Arizona, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema looks set to win a seat in the Senate after the first results showed Republican Martha McSally. Ms. Sinema is now leading Ms. McSally with about 28,000 votes, one percentage point, while election officials continue to compile the results. Several home races in California also remain unnamed. Democrats are assured of taking control of the House, while Republicans will retain control of the Senate when the new Congress takes office in January.

On Sunday, Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott, who declared himself the winner of the Senate race against incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson, saw his lead decrease, was called to recuse himself after filing a complaint, and called the forces of order. investigate any wrongdoing. Groups such as the League of Women Voters have also threatened lawsuits against the governor, whose campaign has not responded to requests for comment.

"He has a personal interest in turning a deaf ear to this election," said CNN's Senate leader, Minorities Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.). "He should be out of it all together."

Scott's campaign Sunday afternoon brought three new lawsuits, including one to invalidate all votes counted in Broward County, a Democrat stronghold, after the Saturday deadline, to which all counties had to go. send unofficial results to the state. It was not clear right away how many votes could be affected. The other two lawsuits called for the preservation of voting machines and ballots used in recounts in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Mr Scott and other Republicans, including President Trump, brought charges of fraud while the votes continued to be counted, but election officials and law enforcement officials stated that there was no evidence of illegal activity. Mr Nelson, who is seeking his fourth term, has never officially conceded and has set up a team of lawyers to continue the count.

Mr. Scott's advance has steadily declined from about 56,000 votes to 12,562 votes, or 0.15 percentage points. The run for governorship between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum is also subject to recount. Mr. DeSantis received approximately 33,000 votes, or 0.41 percentage points. The race to the State Commissioner for Agriculture is also reported.

Under Florida law, local election officials will have up to 15 hours. Thursday, carry out a recount on machine for races within the limit of half a percentage point. If the margin of victory is less than a quarter of a point after the recount, a race proceeds to a manual recount. If necessary, election officials will have until November 18 at noon to carry out a manual recount.

The process in Broward's country has attracted the most anger of Republicans. Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes, whose office has already been the subject of a judicial inquiry, did not say much during this process, except for the attribution of delays to a high turnout. Although there is no evidence of wrongdoing on the Broward election site, delays have affected its operations at several stages of the counting process.

"They have not started counting yet and we do not know when they will," Scott's lawyer, Scott's lawyer, told Reuters on Sunday. Election officials sort the ballots via a machine and start reporting them officially later this week.

Mr Gillum had conceded his turnout on the evening of the election while his deficit was greater than today, but he officially withdrew this concession Saturday. "I replace my previous concession with an unequivocal and uncompromising call to count each vote," he wrote on Twitter.

As Florida begins its recount process, a lawsuit brought by Nelson's campaign and the Florida Democratic Party will continue to take place in federal courts. A federal judge has set Wednesday a date to hear the arguments relating to the complaint, accusing the Florida system of verifying signatures by mail and provisional ballots to be unconstitutional and not counting tens thousands of votes.

The prosecution argues that the large number of postal ballots rejected in previous elections – about 1% in 2012 and 2016, according to the prosecution – underscores the arbitrariness of the signature matching process. He also cites a university study by a professor of political science at the University of Florida, which shows that the postal ballots of young and minority voters were rejected at a higher rate.

Marc Elias, an electoral lawyer working for Nelson's campaign, is optimistic about the Democrat's victory after the recount. He added that a number of exceptional "sub-votes" – ballots for which voters would not clearly indicate their preference in the Senate race – will ultimately be considered votes for Nelson. He also said the campaign was monitoring the possibility that postal ballots would not be counted because they were delayed.

On Sunday, Miami-Dade County officials received 266 ballots found at a postal facility. These votes will not be counted, but could be part of ongoing court proceedings around the count.

Last week, Republicans filed lawsuits in the Broward and Palm Beach County public archives, demanding additional information about the pending ballots and counting of votes. The judges sided with the GOP in both trials, ordering the election officials to provide them with the requested information.

Write to Alex Leary at [email protected] and Andrew Duehren at [email protected]