Florida county officials are expected to submit their final vote tallies by 3 p.m. Thursday, so we can finally declare winners in both the Senate and gubernatorial races. State law requires that races with less than a .05 percent margin get a recount. Republicans, however, who are currently in the lead in both races, see no need for the recounts.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott accused Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes and Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher of “trying to steal the election.” There's certainly reason to believe Snipes is operating under an ideological motive. Her office unlawfully destroyed ballots in the 2016 Democratic primary election with Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Scott is one of many Floridians to demand Snipes be removed from office.
Broward Circuit Judge Tuter is well aware of the stakes of these elections, but he ordered both sides to be careful what they say about their opponents because the country is watching.
“We need to be careful what we say — these words mean things these days,” Tuter said. “Ramp down the rhetoric, if someone in this lawsuit or someone in this county has evidence of voter fraud or irregularities at the supervisor’s office, they should report it to a local law enforcement officer.”
Of course, Trump has only begun to ramp up the rhetoric on his Twitter.
The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2018
POTUS is talking about the thousands of votes that were discovered last week. "More than 80,000 votes were spoken into existence," Republicans angrily charged.
Tuter did not grant all of Gov. Scott's requests, which included impounding voting machines that were not being used, but he did concede to add three Broward Sheriff's deputies to oversee the recount.
As of Monday afternoon, Broward County had still not started counting.