Federal Judge Declares Florida Electors Can Correct Ballot Signing | New policies

By GARY FINEOUT and BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – A federal judge on Thursday morning ordered that Florida voters have until this weekend to fix their ballots if they have not been counted because badly matched signatures.

The decision of US District Judge Mark Walker was made a few hours before 3 pm The counties expire must complete accounts that could determine the next senator and governor in one of the major political battlefields of the United States. Republicans said they would appeal immediately.

State officials said nearly 4,000 postal ballots had been set aside because local officials had decided that the signature on the envelope did not match the signature in the file. These voters are now up to 17 hours. Saturday to hand over the affidavits, including a copy of a valid piece of identity, so that their votes are counted. In this case, they will be included in the final official reports, to be submitted by each county no later than noon on Sunday.

Walker's decision does not directly affect the ongoing recount, which could last until the weekend. The election supervisor in the Democratic Fortress of Palm Beach County has warned that they may not respect Thursday's deadline. US Senator Bill Nelson and the Democrats want this impending delay to be set aside and further lawsuits could lead to further delays.

More than a week after polling day, an immediate resolution seems far away.

Once the recount has been completed, the current law requires a manual review of races with margins of less than 0.25 percentage points. That almost certainly means another recount in the Senate race, with unofficial results showing Republican Gov. Rick Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.14 percentage points.

In addition, the elections will not be valid until Tuesday, although the automatic recount may ultimately put an end to the governor's race, where Republican Ron DeSantis leads Democrat Andrew Gillum with 0.41 percentage point of unofficial results. .

Nelson, three-time incumbent, defended his legal strategy that led to Walker's decision, declaring in a statement Wednesday that "the most important goal of my campaign is to ensure that every legitimate vote is counted correctly in this race in the Senate, and the right of Floridians to participate in this process is protected. "

The Republicans, however, say in their own lawsuits and motions that the Democrats are trying to change the rules after the vote has not gone according to plan.

"We will continue to fight to defend the Florida law and defend the will of the voters," said Chris Hartline, spokesman for Scott.

Another hearing was under way in Walker's court on Thursday, with six trials still ongoing in Tallahassee.

Nelson and the Democrats had asked Walker to order the counting of all postal ballots rejected for erroneous signatures, saying that local election officials are not writing experts.

Walker said that he could not accept this suggestion.

"Let this court be clear: it is not a matter of ordering the county solicitors to count all the inconsistent votes, as far as the eye can see," Walker wrote in his 34-page decision. "County election supervisors should instead allow voters who should have had the opportunity to heal their ballot in the first place to do so by mail and by ballot before the official results are fully counted. This should leave enough time, given current state and county administrative constraints, to Florida voters to make sure their votes will be counted. "

Lauren Schenone, a spokeswoman for Scott, described Walker's decision as "baseless" and said they were "confident" she would be overturned by the Atlanta court of appeal.

Developments fuel the frustrations of Democrats and Republicans. Democrats want state officials to do everything in their power to ensure that every eligible vote is counted. Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have said without proof that electoral fraud risks stealing races from the government.

The moment when state officials will receive recount results from all counties remains unclear. The counting machines overheated earlier this week in Palm Beach County. This resulted in discordant results with the recount of 174,000 advance ballots, forcing staff to go back and do their work again.

County election supervisor Susan Bucher said the machines had been serviced just before the elections, but "I do not think they were designed to operate 24/7."

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