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By Jonathan Allen
MIAMI – Senator Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Conceded Sunday to Republican Rick Scott, giving the GOP at least 52 seats in the Senate at the next Congress.
"I was not victorious in this race, but I still want to strongly reaffirm the cause for which we fought: a public office is a public trust," said Nelson, who accused Scott, during the campaign, to use his governorship for own nest, said in a video statement.
A defiant Nelson asked the Floridians – his sponsors and those of Scott – to continue his fight to secure health insurance for people with pre-existing medical conditions, defend the environment and continue space exploration.
"I ask you never to give up this fight," Nelson said.
Nelson had privately reported his defeat about an hour earlier, Scott said in a statement.
"I just spoke to Senator Bill Nelson, who graciously conceded and I thanked him for his years of public service," Scott said. "This victory would not be possible without the hard work of so many people, now the campaign is really behind us, and we have to leave it behind.We must do what the Americans have always done: bring us together for the good of our state and our country "
President Donald Trump quickly congratulated Scott. "Since the first day, Rick Scott has never hesitated," tweeted the president. "He was a great governor and will represent the Florida Senator even more, and congratulations to Rick for leading this courageous and successful campaign!"
Nelson's victory path had been cut Sunday earlier when the results of the state's vote recount left Scott, the two-term governor of the state, with a 10,033 vote advantage.
Scott had held 12,603 votes after the automatic recount earlier in the week, which means that the county-by-county manual version reduced the 2,570 vote gap.
The 67 counties of the state had to meet at 12 o'clock. Sunday, deadline for their results to be counted.
The addition of Scott to Republican senators in the Senate of 52 seats in the Senate and Democrats 47 seats in the next Congress, pending the outcome of a special election in Mississippi to be decided on 27 November.
And the narrow election in Florida – the Republicans won the governors' race by less than half a percentage point – will keep President Donald Trump and the future Democratic candidate focused on the state's 27 electoral votes from here to 2020 elections.
The Democrats initially hoped that Broward County, where there were about 30,000 ballots, would allow the machines to win multiple votes on the same ballot for the Senate race or not vote at all on this ballot. competition, called "superimposed votes" or "non-voters".
They thought it was possible that the machines were mistaken and simply did not read valid votes for the Senate race.
But Broward County has updated its website shortly before Sunday noon with new numbers showing that voters simply did not choose a candidate, presumably because of the design of the ballot.
After counting, Nelson had collected 495 votes in Broward from the totals originally submitted to the Secretary of State, and Scott had added 142 votes.
In the days following the November 6 elections, Democrats launched a broad legal challenge to Florida's election laws and the actions of state officials as part of an effort to ensure that every vote is counted.
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