Florida Gov. Rick Scott
All eyes are on Florida right now as the state braces for another recount.
Marc Elias, partner at Perkins Coie law firm and Hillary Clinton’s fixer who paid Fusion GPS for the fake Russia dossier, has been retained to help the Democrats recount operation.
Broward County and Palm Beach County in Florida, both Democrat strongholds are still counting ballots two days after the polls closed and Senator Marco Rubio is blaming elections supervisor Brenda Snipes.
Earlier Thursday, Senator Rubio said Broward County and Palm Beach County refused to disclose how many ballots they have left to count.
Rubio said the latest ballot dump from Broward County flipped the AG Comm race to Dem and cut down Scott’s lead from 54K to 17K against Democrat Bill Nelson in the US Senate race and we still don’t know how many ballots they have left to count!
Democrat Bill Nelson is fighting Republican Rick Scott with swamp dweller Marc Elias of Perkins Coie.
Figures.
Sen. Bill Nelson is bringing in election law lawyer Marc Elias to run his Florida recount operation. “A significant number of ballots have not yet been counted and, because of the size of Florida, we believe the results of the election are unknown,” Elias says
Wednesday evening, Marc Elias warned ‘more tomorrow’ in response to US House Editor at the Cook Political Report Dave Wasserman who said, “Still trying to wrap my head around Dems winning House seats in Oklahoma, Staten Island & Beaufort, SC but failing to breakthrough statewide in FL.”
“Just wait. Don’t be so sure. More tomorrow,” Elias said.
Thursday evening, Marc Elias bragged about Nelson magically gaining votes two days after the polls closed.
ELIAS: BREAKING: The Florida Senate election has further narrowed. Nelson now trails by only 15,597 or .19%. Counting continues As I said earlier, I expect that margin to narrow further until recount. The outcome is currently unknown, but I would rather be Nelson than Scott.
Thursday evening, Governor Rick Scott filed a lawsuit against Broward election supervisor Brenda Snipes.
Gov. Rick Scott & the NRSC are filing a public records lawsuit against Broward election supervisor Brenda Snipes for failing to provide them with information about outstanding ballots that have yet to be tabulated. The lawsuit comes as Scott’s margins are shrinking v. Sen Nelson
“The incompetence & the violation of #Florida reporting requirements by #BrowardCounty elections dept could impact more than just the outcome. The last thing our already dangerously divided nation needs is an important election 1/2 our people believe was rigged by the other 1/2,” Rubio tweeted.
Rubio also shared a video, allegedly showing ballots being transported in private vehicles from polling places.
Rubio also shared a video, allegedly showing ballots being transported in private vehicles from polling places.
Further, Rubio shared the account of a lone box labeled “Provisional Ballot Box” left at a county elementary school that served as a polling precinct. But the reporter who originally flagged the abandoned box later walked it back, citing another local reporter who tweeted a photo showing the apparent container filled with little more than supplies.
Tucker Carlson Tonight’ investigates Brenda Snipes
Zero Hedge reports;
Is Florida gearing up for Bush vs. Gore redux?
It’s starting to look that way.
As Fox News reports, lawyers are arriving in Democratic strongholds in Florida as the state prepares for a recount in Broward County, the epicenter of the vote-counting controversy that led to Bush vs. Gore, and Palm Beach County.Both are Democratic strongholds that have been extremely slow to deliver final ballot totals for Tuesday’s election.
To try and push for a hand recount, defeated incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson has hired Democratic attorney Marc Elias of law firm Perkins Coie to help plead his case and point out suspicious “inconsistencies” with the vote count in Broward, where more than 20,000 voters voted in down-ballot races but left out their votes for governor’s race, in which Nelson’s Democratic ally, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, has already conceded to Republican Ron DeSantis.
The controversy has already attracted the attention of President Trump, who in a series of tweets Friday afternoon warned that Democrats were dispatching attorneys, including their best “election stealing lawyer,” to try and rig the vote after earlier hinting that he might authorize a federal investigation
Trump even praised his former political rival, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, for helping expose the possible corruption happening in Broward County, where boxes of what appear to be uncounted provisional ballots have been discovered at polling stations.
Meanwhile, in a press conference held Thursday evening, Scott, who is also the outgoing governor, warned of “rampant fraud,” and filed lawsuits against the top election officials in two heavily Democratic counties as they continue to report new votes.
Rubio pointed out in a tweet on Friday that Broward is violating state laws about the tallying and submission of vote totals from mail-in ballots.
Rubio also pointed out that early voting in Broward County had ended “108 hours ago”, and that the county wouldn’t disclose “how many ballots are left.”
Last night, Scott specifically called out elections supervisors in both counties, Brenda Snipes in Broward and Susan Bucher in Palm Beach.
“Late Tuesday night, our win was projected to be around 57,000 votes,” Scott told reporters. “By Wednesday morning, that lead dropped to 38,000. By Wednesday evening, it was around 30,000. This morning, it was around 21,000. Now, it is 15,000.”
He continued: “On election night, Broward County said there were 634,000 votes cast. At 1 a.m. today, there were 695,700 ballots cast on election day. At 2:30 p.m. today, the number was up to 707,223 ballots cast on Election Day. And we just learned, that the number has increased to 712,840 ballots cast on Election Day. In Palm Beach County, there are 15,000 new votes found since election night.”
Snipes’ behavior looks particularly suspect, considering that she has expressed a “personal animus” toward Gov. Scott? And also has a record of illegal and unethical behavior, including the illegal destruction of ballots.
Of course, Florida isn’t the only state where Democratic candidates are gaining ground in the vote tallies days after the election ended.
In Arizona, Democrat Kirsten Sinema is now leading Republican Martha McSally in that state’s senate race, which has yet to be officially called.
In a tweet sent late Friday afternoon, Trump cryptically warned of new evidence of election tampering in Arizona when he tweeted that “signatures don’t match” on some of the ballots.
In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams is gaining on Republican Brian Kemp in the governor’s race. Whatever the outcome, it’s increasingly looking like the final outcomes of some of these races won’t be known for some time.
What’s going on in Florida
Plainly, a recount means that every vote cast will be re-tabulated. In Florida, if the margin of victory is 0.5 percent or less, a machine recount is ordered. If that margin is 0.25 percent or less, the state will trigger a manual recount, where the “over votes” and “under votes” are counted by hand.
This matters, particularly in the Senate race. For example, in Broward County, of the 695,799 people who turned in ballots, only 665,688 voted in the Senate race, according to the current count — less than almost every other statewide race on the ballot.
Broward County is a Democratic stronghold in Florida. The home of the False Flag at the Parkland School earlier in the year, another attempt by the left to strangle gun laws.
Why there have been so many “under votes” in Broward County remains a mystery. Some have said it’s because of how the ballot is formatted, putting the Senate race on the bottom of the page under a long block of voting instructions. But Nelson’s lawyer thinks it’s a machine error that would be rectified with a hand recount.
A recount also means that provisional and overseas absentee ballots — all of which are typically counted after Election Day — are counted, a process that can at times take more than a week.
This is where the process gets tricky.
There are always mail-in ballots and provisional ballots that aren’t counted — due to a lack of ID or matching address — that can be counted if they are rechecked. Typically, voters are notified of errors and have to sign an affidavit “curing” the mistakes before Election Day. But there are always ballots turned in on Election Day that can’t be re-checked, and people that cast provisional ballots.
According to Daniel Smith, a political scientist with the University of Florida and an election watcher, of the mail ballots returned on Election Day, more than 13,000 had issues.
Voters had until 5 pm Eastern time Thursday to make sure their vote counted, or “cure” their votes of any errors, and county supervisors must submit the results from provisional ballots by Saturday.
In a recount, the latter deadline could change. For now, campaigns are in a mad dash to contact voters and verify their ballots. This is a struggle — in past elections, fewer than half of cast provisional ballots actually get counted. But based on where provisional ballots have been cast so far, it looks like if they are counted, they’d overwhelmingly go toward Democrats. Overseas and military ballots still haven’t fully come in for this election, and those typically strengthen Republicans’ leads.
It’s worth noting that in 2016, Marc Elias, currently Nelson’s elections lawyer, was general counsel on Hillary Clinton’s campaign and said that Clinton’s chance of winning through recounts was next to none.
“The number of votes separating Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the closest of these states — Michigan — well exceeds the largest margin ever overcome in a recount,” he said then.
Rick Scott filed a lawsuit to halt vote counting on Thursday, saying that Elias “is here to try to steal the election, and to try to thwart the will of the voters of Florida.”