“The election overseer for a critical county in Florida confirmed to CNN on Sunday what observers in both parties had begun to predict: There is no way Palm Beach County’s machine recount will be finished by the Thursday deadline.”
“The prediction came as a rare point of agreement between Democrats and Republicans in the state, who have engaged in a tense fight since Tuesday’s election brought tight margins in statewide races.”
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) said that he’s won his closely contested Senate race against Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and that his opponent is “committing fraud” in an effort to steal back the race from him and is a “sore loser,” Politico reports.
Said Scott: “Senator Nelson is trying to commit fraud to win this election.”
“Florida officials said vote tallies from counties, which were due to the state today, show the races are close enough to trigger a recount,” the Washington Post reports.
“A machine recount and possibly a hand recount will be necessary to learn the outcomes of the races between Sen. Bill Nelson (D) and Gov. Rick Scott (R), who is seeking to unseat him, and between former congressman Ron DeSantis (R) and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D), who are vying for governor.”
“Miami-Dade County announced today that it has finished counting votes for the 2018 election. But photos obtained by Miami New Times show scores of mail-in ballots sitting inside an Opa-locka mail distribution center.”
“The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is not actively investigating any matters related to Tuesday’s election, a department spokesperson said Friday, after it was informed by the Florida Department of State that there have been no allegations of criminal activity,” CNN reports.
“The announcement comes just one day after Florida Gov. Rick Scott — the Republican candidate for US Senate in the state — requested the state law enforcement agency investigate possible fraudulent activity in Broward and Palm Beach counties as his race against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson appears headed for a recount.”
Nathaniel Rakich: “Unusually, the votes tabulated in Broward County so far exhibit a high rate of something called ‘undervoting,’ or not voting in all the races on the ballot. Countywide, 26,060 fewer votes were cast in the U.S. Senate race than in the governor race. Put another way, turnout in the Senate race was 3.7 percent lower than in the gubernatorial race.”
“Broward County’s undervote rate is way out of line with every other county in Florida, which exhibited, at most, a 0.8-percent difference… To put in perspective what an eye-popping number of undervotes that is, more Broward County residents voted for the down-ballot constitutional offices of chief financial officer and state agriculture commissioner than U.S. Senate — an extremely high-profile election in which $181 million was spent. Generally, the higher the elected office, the less likely voters are to skip it on their ballots.”
“Something sure does seem off in Broward County; we just don’t know what yet.”
President Trump called the delay in tallying ballots in Florida “a disgrace” and sought to tie the ongoing vote count to a conspiracy he claimed exists to undermine Republicans by Democratic operatives, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “All of a sudden they’re finding votes out of nowhere.”
First Read: “We guess it’s only fitting — and expected — that Election Day 2018 is far from over, with drama and controversies over new vote counts and/or upcoming recounts in Arizona, Florida and Georgia.”
“But what is taking place in Florida is now war – after Republican Rick Scott’s lead in the Senate contest was reduced to just 15,000 votes. Scott, the state’s current governor, filed a lawsuit accusing Democrats of fraud and trying to steal the election. President Trump weighed in, tweeting: ‘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!'”
“What happens when you have a 2000-like recount in our current Trump Era – not only in Florida, but also in Arizona and Georgia? Well, we’re about to find out. The following weeks in Florida could very well define the state over the next two years, and it’s likely to produce a result where half of the state won’t believe it’s legitimate.”
The Tampa Bay Times outlines Sen. Bill Nelson’s (D-FL) path to victory as the race heads to a recount. Nelson trails by just 21,888 votes out of 8.2 million.
Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Times notes the race for governor is also now in recount range.
Politico: “Election officials, campaign operatives and lawyers across Florida are gearing up for massive recounts in large part due to a familiar problem: Broward County, which has been saddled with election controversies ever since the disputed 2000 presidential race.”
“All eyes are on that problematic South Florida county – Florida’s second largest and one of its most Democratic – as it lags nearly every other in the state in reporting ballot tallies. The county’s results could help decide the races for U.S. Senate, governor and agriculture commissioner, which are headed for recounts.”
“Republican Gov. Rick Scott, claiming south Florida election officials are fraudulently mishandling ballots, ordered the state’s top law enforcement agency Thursday to investigate and filed a lawsuit demanding access to ballots narrowing his lead against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson,” USA Today reports.
Said Scott: “I will not stand idly by while unethical liberals try to steal an election.”
A Florida teacher told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that she discovered a locked ballot box that was left behind at a polling site at her school.
Democrats have an “army of lawyers” working on the likely recount that will decide the winner of the Florida Senate race, USA Today reports.
“Fewer than 17,400 votes out of more than 8.1 million cast separated Republican challenger Gov. Rick Scott over Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson as of Thursday afternoon. That’s inside the 0.25 point margin that dictates a hand recount of ballots that showed either no vote or more than one vote cast in the Senate race.”
A recount will be conducted in Florida’s hard-fought U.S. Senate race after challenger Rick Scott’s (R) lead over Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) fell below the threshold of half of one percent, the Gainesville Sun reports.
Said Nelson: “We are proceeding to a recount.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in Florida finds Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) leading Gov. Rick Scott (R) in the U.S. Senate race by seven points, 51% to 44% among likely voters.
In the race for governor, Andrew Gillum (D) leads Ron DeSantis (R) by the same margin, 50% to 43%.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “There is little difference in the two races. Both leaders ran up double-digit leads among women; whites went heavily for the GOP candidates while non-whites went even more so for the Democrats.”
A new NBC News/Marist poll in Florida finds Andrew Gillum (D) leading Ron DeSantis (R) in the race for governor, 50% to 46%.
in the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Bill Nelson (D) leads Gov. Rick Scott (R), 50% to 46%.
A new St. Pete Polls survey in Florida finds Andrew Gillum (D) just ahead of Ron DeSantis (R) in the race for governor, 48% to 46%.
In the U.S. Senate race, Gov. Rick Scott (R) edges Sen. Bill Nelson (D), 49% to 48%.
A new UNF poll in Florida finds Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) leading Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) in the U.S. Senate race, 47% to 46% among likely voters.
Key finding: Eighty-one percent of likely Democratic voters said they will vote for Nelson in the upcoming election, compared to the 86% of likely Republican voters who say they will back Scott.
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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