Trump says Florida should call off its election recount because of Democrats’ corruption

President Donald Trump said Monday that the state of Florida should abandon what he sees as a hopelessly corrupt election recount process and hand a U.S. Senate seat and the governorship to Republicans who led by narrow margins on Election Day.

Florida law requires machine recounts of ballots in races where less than 0.5 per cent of votes separate the top two finishers. For races with margins less than 0.25 per cent, votes must be recounted by hand. 

But Trump claims corruption among Democratic officials in charge of a few Florida counties has rendered the process a crooked political exercise designed to overturn a legitimate result.

‘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,’ Trump tweeted.

‘An honest vote count is no longer possible – ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!’

President Donald Trump said Monday that the state of Florida should throw out its legally required election recount process and stick with the unofficial results of November 6

Trump believes Democratic officials in a pair of Florida counties have helmed in a hopelessly corrupted process designed to disadvantage Republicans and steal a U.S. Senate seat and a governor's race

Trump believes Democratic officials in a pair of Florida counties have helmed in a hopelessly corrupted process designed to disadvantage Republicans and steal a U.S. Senate seat and a governor’s race

Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, left, and judge Betsy Benson of the election canvassing board, listened to arguments on Sunday about whether to include or exclude specific ballots

Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, left, and judge Betsy Benson of the election canvassing board, listened to arguments on Sunday about whether to include or exclude specific ballots

Republican protesters gathered outside the Broward County of Supervisor of Elections Office on Sunday as the statewide election recount got underway

Republican protesters gathered outside the Broward County of Supervisor of Elections Office on Sunday as the statewide election recount got underway

Elections for governors and members of Congress are run by states, not by the federal government. 

Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a candidate for governor who conceded the race last Tuesday only to change his mind as more votes came in, responded to Trump on Monday. 

‘You sound nervous. #CountEveryVote,’ he tweeted.

In Florida, a combination of official incompetence, litigation and political protests are overshadowing the vote recount, reviving memories of the 2000 presidential fiasco there.

All 67 counties are facing a state-ordered deadline of Thursday to complete their recounts, and half have already begun. Many other counties were expected to begin the work Monday after a weekend of recount drama in Broward and Palm Beach counties, home to large concentrations of Democratic voters.

The recount process is unprecedented even in a state notorious for settling elections by razor-thin margins. State officials said they weren’t aware of any other time a race for governor or U.S. Senate required a recount, let alone both in the same election.

Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a candidate for governor who conceded the race last Tuesday only to change his mind as more votes came in, responded to Trump

Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a candidate for governor who conceded the race last Tuesday only to change his mind as more votes came in, responded to Trump

Gov. Rick Scott, the Republican candidate for Senate, said Monday on ‘Fox & Friends’ that he smells a rat. 

‘We won by 57,000 votes that night. So we know that since then, just in these two counties, 93,000 new votes showed up. How did that happen?’

As of Monday morning his edge had been reduced to about 12,500. 

He also targeted Broward’s supervisor of elections, a Democrat named Brenda Snipes. 

‘We know that Brenda Snipes said that she – ballots that she acknowledged, knows, were illegal, she mixed them in with legal ballots. We know that!’ he said.

‘I want to make sure there are free and fair elections, but there’s laws. Compliance with the law is supposed to prevent fraud.’

In Broward County, the recount was delayed for hours Sunday because of a problem with one of the tabulation machines. That prompted the Republican Party to accuse Snipes of ‘incompetence and gross mismanagement.’

Broward officials faced more headaches after acknowledging the county mistakenly counted 22 absentee ballots that had been rejected. The problem seemed impossible to fix because dismissed ballots were mixed in with 205 legal ballots and Snipes said it would be unfair to throw out all the votes.

Scott filed a lawsuit against Snipes. He’s seeking a court order for law enforcement agents to impound all voting machines, tallying devices and ballots ‘when not in use until such time as any recounts.’

The suit accused Snipes of repeatedly failing to account for the number of ballots left to be counted and failing to report results regularly as required by law.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democrats' candidate for Florida governor, got a standing ovation while addressing supporters on Sunday and urging that they keep politically engaged as the Broward County of Supervisor of Elections Office spends the next five days recounting votes

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democrats’ candidate for Florida governor, got a standing ovation while addressing supporters on Sunday and urging that they keep politically engaged as the Broward County of Supervisor of Elections Office spends the next five days recounting votes

Republican Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey celebrated after appearing to win the Florida governor's race last Tuesday but more votes appeared and his margin shrank significantly

Republican Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey celebrated after appearing to win the Florida governor’s race last Tuesday but more votes appeared and his margin shrank significantly

Election workers placed ballots into electronic counting machines on Sunday as the Florida recount began

Election workers placed ballots into electronic counting machines on Sunday as the Florida recount began

The court didn’t immediately respond, though the outcry from Democrats was immediate.

Juan Penalosa, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, accused Scott of ‘using his position to consolidate power by cutting at the very core of our democracy.’

Meanwhile, in Palm Beach County, the supervisor of elections said she didn’t think her department could meet Thursday’s deadline to complete that recount, throwing into question what would happen to votes there.

The recount in other major population centers, including Miami-Dade and Pinellas and Hillsborough counties in the Tampa Bay area, has been continuing without incident. Smaller counties were expected to begin reviews between Monday and Wednesday.

Unofficial results showed Republican former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis ahead of Gillum by 0.41 percentage points in the governor’s contest. In the Senate race, Scott’s lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson was 0.14 percentage points.

State law requires a machine recount in races where the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. Once completed, if the differences in any of the races are 0.25 percentage points or below, a hand recount will be ordered.

Florida's current governor, Republican Rick Scott, led in the U.S. Senate race on Election Night but his advantage has dwindled by more than two-thirds since then

Florida’s current governor, Republican Rick Scott, led in the U.S. Senate race on Election Night but his advantage has dwindled by more than two-thirds since then

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has brought in heavy-hitter lawyers to oversee his effort to tilt the recount process in his favor, and they believe he'll succeed

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has brought in heavy-hitter lawyers to oversee his effort to tilt the recount process in his favor, and they believe he’ll succeed

Republicans urged their Democratic opponents to give up and let the state to move on.

Gillum and Nelson insist that each vote should be counted and the process should take its course.

Scott said Sunday that Nelson wants fraudulent ballots and those cast by noncitizens to count, pointing to a Nelson lawyer’s objection of Palm Beach County’s rejection of one provisional ballot because it was cast by a noncitizen.

‘He is trying to commit fraud to win this election,’ Scott told Fox News. ‘Bill Nelson’s a sore loser. He’s been in politics way too long.’

Nelson’s campaign issued a statement later saying their lawyer wasn’t authorized to object to the ballot’s rejection, as ‘Non-citizens cannot vote in US elections.’

Gillum appeared Sunday evening at a predominantly African-American church in Fort Lauderdale, declaring that voter disenfranchisement isn’t just about being blocked from the polling booth. He said it also includes absentee ballots not being counted and ballots with mismatched signatures that ‘a volunteer may have the option of … deciding that vote is null and void.’

Both the state elections division, which Scott runs, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have said they have found no evidence of voter fraud.

That didn’t stop protests outside Snipes’ office, where a mostly Republican crowd gathered, holding signs, listening to country music and occasionally chanting ‘lock her up,’ referring to Snipes. A massive Trump 2020 flag flew over the parking lot and a Bikers For Trump group wore matching shirts. One protester wore a Hillary Clinton mask.

Registered independent Russell Liddick, a 38-year-old Pompano Beach retail worker, carried a sign reading, ‘I’m not here for Trump! I’m here for fair elections! Fire Snipes!’ He said the office’s problems ‘don’t make me feel very much like my vote counted.’

A crowd of protesters gathered in Broward County as ballots were run through scanning machines for a second time under the watchful eye of representatives of both parties

A crowd of protesters gathered in Broward County as ballots were run through scanning machines for a second time under the watchful eye of representatives of both parties

Florida also is conducting a recount in a third statewide race. Democrat Nikki Fried had a 0.07 percentage point lead over Republican state Rep. Matt Caldwell for agriculture commissioner, one of Florida’s three Cabinet seats.

For some, the recounts bring back memories of the 2000 presidential recount, when it took more than five weeks for Florida to declare George W. Bush the victor over Vice President Al Gore by 537 votes, thus giving Bush the presidency.

Much has changed since then.

In 2000, each county had its own voting system. Many used punch cards – voters poked out chads, leaving tiny holes in their ballots representing their candidates. Some voters, however, didn’t fully punch out the presidential chad or gave it just a little push. Those hanging and dimpled chads had to be examined by the canvassing boards, a lengthy, tiresome and often subjective process that became fodder for late-night comedians.

Now the state requires all Florida counties to use ballots where voters use a pen to mark their candidate’s name, much like a student taking a multiple-choice test, and the process for recounts is clearly spelled out.

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