Gov. Rick Scott's Senate campaign is suing the Broward County elections supervisor to turn over records regarding how ballots are being counted.
Scott's campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee filed a lawsuit late Thursday demanding that Broward Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes be ordered to turn over several records detailing the counting and collection of ballots cast in Tuesday's election. They are seeking an emergency hearing as the votes must be certified by noon Saturday.
"Every day since the election, the left-wing activists in Broward County have been coming up with more and more ballots out of nowhere," Scott said from the governor's mansion in Tallahassee. "We all know what is going on. Every person in Florida knows exactly what is happening. Their goal is to keep mysteriously finding more votes until the elections turn out the way they want."
A hearing was set for 3 p.m. Friday in state court.
For the first time since he claimed victory in the Senate race, Scott addressed the media in a fiery news conference where he attacked Broward and Palm Beach counties' elections supervisors of "rampant fraud" in their new vote tallies.
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"I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the people of Florida," Scott said.
Scott's campaign also filed a lawsuit Thursday night against Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher.
"There are 67 counties in Florida, only these two counties are involved in these shenanigans," Scott said. "There are no other counties - Republican or Democrat - that are trying to steal this election, or who are still finding ballots."
Republican candidate and current Gov. Rick Scott leads by about 15,000 votes — 0.18 percent — over three-term Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat. If that number remains under one-quarter of a percentage point, a manual recount will be ordered in each county.
The lawsuit was filed about the same time Scott ordered state law enforcement officials to investigate the Broward and Palm Beach voting operation.
Scott has a narrow lead over incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and the race may be headed to a recount. His lead narrowed as final ballots in heavily Democratic Broward and Palm Beach counties were counted Wednesday and Thursday.
Snipes said Thursday night she did not know about the lawsuit and therefore had no comment.
Nelson campaign spokesman Dan McLaughlin issued a statement saying that all votes should be counted accurately and that Scott's action "appears to be politically motivated and borne out of desperation."
