Trump slams Florida vote count as prospects for recount grow

President Trump slammed the vote-counting process taking place in Florida’s Broward County as the prospect of recounts in the Senate and gubernatorial races grow.

“If you look at Broward County, they have had a horrible history,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “And if you look at the person, in this case a woman, involved, she has had a horrible history, and all of the sudden they’re finding votes out of nowhere and Rick Scott, who won, you know it was close, who won by a comfortable margin, every couple of hours it goes down by a little bit.” 

{mosads}“Bad things are going on in Broward Country, really bad things. We’ve been to court, had a lot of drama. We won. I say this: We easily won. But every hour it seems to be going down. I think that people have to look at it very, very cautiously,” he also said.

He also noted that there “could be” a federal role if a recount became necessary.

Florida is in the midst of potential recounts in the Senate race between Sen. Bill Nelson (D) and Gov. Rick Scott (R), as well as the gubernatorial race between Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) and former Rep. Ron DeSantis (R).

The comments come after Trump on Thursday said that law enforcement was looking into potential “election fraud” in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

“Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!” Trump said on Twitter Thursday night. 

Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018

He weighed in on Twitter again following his comments on the White House lawn, slamming the Nelson campaign’s attorney:

As soon as Democrats sent their best Election stealing lawyer, Marc Elias, to Broward County they miraculously started finding Democrat votes. Don’t worry, Florida – I am sending much better lawyers to expose the FRAUD!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018

Scott announced Thursday night he will file a lawsuit against Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes. He accused her of withholding records regarding how many people voted, how many ballots have been counted and how many more votes remain untallied in the county.

“The lack of transparency raises substantial concerns about the validity of the election process,” his lawsuit reads. It demands an emergency hearing ahead of a critical noon Saturday deadline for the county canvassing board to submit election results to the state Division of Elections. 

He went on to accuse Snipes of having a “history of acting in bad faith” and called into the question where new vote tallies in Broward and Palm Beach counties were coming from. 

“The people of Florida deserve fairness and they deserve transparency and the supervisor of elections is refusing to give it to us,” Scott said.

“I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nelson announced his campaign is suing Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner in Tallahassee federal court to extend the deadline for counties to turn in unofficial vote counts.

“Based on my experience in other states in recounts I would expect that when we go into a machine recount then a hand recount, right now the results are unknown as to who’s won. If I had to place a bet, I’d say that it’s more likely than not that Sen. Nelson will prevail in a recount,” Elias said.

While Scott appeared to be victorious over Nelson on Election Day, the Republican’s lead has narrowed to 0.18 percentage points as votes, mostly from Broward and Palm Beach counties, come in.

A recount is automatically triggered in Florida if two candidates are within 0.5 points of each other, and a hand recount is mandated with a margin of 0.25 points or less.

Florida’s gubernatorial race is seeing similar tightening in its margin, dwindling down to 0.44 points as of Thursday night, and may be heading to a recount as well.

Updated at 12:13 p.m.