Nelson campaign to sue to extend deadline for vote counting

Sen. Bill Nelson’s (D-Fla.) reelection 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.

While Nelson’s Republican opponent, Gov. Rick Scott, appeared to be victorious over Nelson Tuesday night, his lead has narrowed to about 15,000 as votes, mostly from Broward and Palm Beach counties, came in Wednesday and Thursday.

{mosads}“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,” Marc Elias, Nelson’s campaign lawyer, said.

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. As of Thursday night, Scott led Nelson by a mere 0.18 points.

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 Broward.

“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 county canvassing boards to submit election results to the state Division of Elections.

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

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.