Posted on 11/08/2018 2:50:34 PM PST by yesthatjallen
The races for Senate and governor in Florida tightened even further on Thursday, raising the prospect that two of the highest profile contests in the country could be headed to a recount.
The tumult also underscored how intensely divided the country’s largest and most volatile battleground state remains along political and demographic lines 18 years after handing George W. Bush the presidency following one of the most controversial recounts in U.S. history.
As of Thursday afternoon, just 17,344 votes – a difference of 0.22 percentage points – separated Sen. Bill Nelson (D) and his Republican challenger, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, in their closely watched Senate race.
Meanwhile, the race for Florida governor also unexpectedly narrowed, with new vote totals showing Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) and former Rep. Ron DeSantis (D) within 0.47 points of one another.
The close races have buoyed Democratic hopes that Nelson and Gillum could still eek out narrow wins, frustrating Republicans who saw the contests as all but decided after Tuesday's elections.
In Florida, machine recounts are triggered when the margin between two candidates is of below 0.5 points, while hand recounts are prompted when candidates are separated by 0.25 points or less.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Marc Elias, a prominent elections lawyer hired by Nelson to counsel him through a recount, was bullish about the senator’s prospects of winning a fourth term in the chamber.
He said that vote totals were still coming in from Broward and Palm Beach counties – both Democratic strongholds – and that a hand recount appeared inevitable.
“At the end of this process Sen. Nelson is going to prevail,” Elias said. “I will say it’s a jump ball."
Meanwhile, Scott’s campaign accused the three-term Democrat of trying to “steal" the election.
Scott has already declared victory in the race, though Nelson has yet to concede.
The political landscape in Florida got another shock to the system on Thursday, when Gillum opened the door to a possible recount in his bid for governor.
Gillum conceded to DeSantis on Tuesday night after polls showed him trailing by a slim – but then seemingly insurmountable – 1 point margin.
But new returns on Thursday showed the gap is closing. DeSantis, who once led Gillum by nearly 80,000 votes, is currently ahead by only 38,515 votes, according to the most recent count posted by the Florida Division of Elections.
“Mayor Gillum started his campaign for the people, and we are committed to ensuring every single vote in Florida is counted,” Johanna Cervone, Gillum’s communications director, said in a statement.
The closest state-wide race in Florida is the contest for agriculture commissioner, where Democrat Nikki Fried leads Republican Matt Caldwell by a mere 575 votes. Though a lower profile race, agriculture commissioner is a Cabinet-level position in Florida and is seen as influential in state policymaking.
Most Florida counties have yet to complete evaluations of provisional ballots – those cast by voters whose eligibility was uncertain or unverified.
As of Thursday afternoon, Broward County election officials were still tallying up vote-by-mail ballots and early voting ballots. Meanwhile, officials in Palm Beach County were busy counting vote-by-mail ballots.
Machine recounts in Florida would need to be completed by Nov. 15, while manual recounts would need to be wrapped up by Nov. 18, setting up the prospect of an intense race to count the votes.
Other high-profile election results across the country were also up in the air.
In Arizona, vote counts continued to trickle in for the Senate race between Reps. Kyrsten Sinema (D) and Martha McSally (R).
Just over 17,000 votes currently separate the two candidates in a crucial race to succeed retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
In a bid to limit mail-in ballots in the state, the Arizona Republican Party filed a lawsuit late Wednesday alleging that some county recorders have allowed voters to fix problems with their mail-in ballots after Election Day.
Arizona is expected to release the results of a new batch of tallied votes on Thursday evening.
In Georgia, the race for governor also remains too close to call. Republican Brian Kemp, who declared victory and resigned his post as the Georgia secretary of state on Thursday, is hanging on to a slim 1.6-point margin.
But Democrat Stacey Abrams is hoping that outstanding ballots will give her the votes to close that gap enough to trigger a runoff election.
Her campaign preparing a lawsuit alleging that some voters in Dougherty County weren't given enough time to return their absentee ballots by Election Day, because the county was too slow to send them out.
“We are in this race until we’re convinced that every vote is counted,” Abrams’s campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo said at a press conference Thursday. “We don’t believe any of these numbers are credible.”
OF COURSE it grows tighter.
Bastard cheaters.
Are they still at the union print shop?
Thousands of undervotes in Senate race. Who knew?
And everyone intended to vote for Nelson.
My blood pressure cannot handle this crap. 2000 was bad enough.
It’s Florida they count till the Democrat wins.
Pretty obvious they are cheating. Why does the GOP let this happen every damn time, and why is the FL GOP not on top of this? They always cheat to steal close races, and for some reason the GOP lets them.
WHY is the vote recount confined ONLY to the counties where the history of widespread fraud is most prominent?
Call for a recount of EVERY precinct in the state in a state-wide race as these contested results are.
Many places, once they have secured a comfortable margin from the in-person voting, do not much bother with mail-in or provisional votes. There could be all sorts of military votes not yet counted, for example, and thus not opened and included in the final tally.
Level playing field and all that, you know.
DO NOT SEAT ANDREW GILLUM
Pam Biondi
Office of Attorney General
State of Florida
The Capitol PL-01
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050
Telephone Numbers
Switchboard: 850-414-3300
Citizens Services: 850-414-3990
Florida Toll Free: 1-866-966-7226
Thanks to an astute Freeper......we know the Fla legislator can refuse to seat Gillum.
Florida state legislature
House of Representatives——
Majority Republican Party (73)
Minority——Democratic Party (47)
President of the Senate Joe Negron (R) Since November 22, 2016
Senate Majority Leader Wilton Simpson (R) Since November 29, 2016
Speaker of the House Richard Corcoran (R) Since November 22, 2016
House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues (R)
Call President Trump: Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Comment Line: 202-353-1555 Switchboard: 202-514-2000
CONTACT: Florida Secretary of State
R.A. Gray Building
500 South Bronough Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399
850.245.6500
850.245.6125 (fax)
850.245.6096 (TDD line)
EMAIL SecretaryofState@DOS.MyFlorida.com
Physical Address:
Clifton Building
2661 Executive Center Circle
Tallahassee, FL 32301
Hours: 8:00 a.m. - 5 p.m. EST
Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 6327
Tallahassee, FL 32314
850.245.6000
850.245.6014 (fax)
sunbiz.org/contact.html
CONTACT Sen. Mitch McConnell
Contact Info
Website
http://mcconnell.senate.gov
Washington, DC
adr: U.S. Senate, 317 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 205100001
ph: (202) 224-2541
fax: (202) 224-2499
Bowling Green, KY
adr: Federal Building, 241 East Main Street - Room 102, Bowling Green, KY 42101
ph: (270) 781-1673
Louisville, KY
adr: 601 West Broadway - Room 630, Louisville, KY 40202
ph: (502) 582-6304
Lexington, KY
adr: 771 Corporate Drive, Suite 108, Lexington, KY 40503
ph: (859) 224-8286
Governor Scott CAN fire the Supervisors of Elections in Palm Beach and Broward Counties. They are in violation of Florida Law.
CONTACT GOV SCOTT:
Office of Governor Rick Scott
State of Florida
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
(850) 488-7146
Has anybody else noticed that with all these recounts, only the democrats gain votes. Why is that? Is it because perhaps there is some cheating? Why is it that the Republicans never gain any votes?
This is nothing compared to what’s happening here in AZ. They have over 600,000 ballots still uncounted, with 500,000 of those in left leaning Phoenix. More than enough to overturn the R Senate “victory” on election night.
In this GOPs fault, in my view. In my way, get several GOP counties ready for “recount”. When rats have final numbers by X, announce we are doing “ “ recount” as well. Find X + 200 numbers. We won. If they want to audit ballots, good idea. We need to audit all recount ballots. Play this as long as you can.
Require a $100M bond from the Democrat loser who asks for a recount. The bond will be non-refundable, and used to fund the recount.
Any excess will go to the funding a permanent state committee to investigate voter fraud and to clean voter rolls.
AZ is lost as will be the governor and senator in FL. GA governor may survive, but I give it <50% chance.
Brenda Snipes and her minions are working overtime to create ballots.
I’m praying to God his will be done.
END early voting.
End absentee voting unless incapacitated to get to polls.
END Provisional ballots.
END motor voter registration.
Purple fingers for all.
Open polls at 5 am if necessary for working people & close them at 8 or 9 pm.
NO ELECTION RESULTS UNTIL WEST COAST POLLS CLOSED.
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