Florida Politics by Scott Powers 11/12/2018
Saying there’s no practical reason for the statutory deadlines that counties face to do machine and hand recounts of last week’s election, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s lead vote-recount lawyer said Monday he believes they should be given the time they need even beyond the deadlines.
Marc Elias on Monday told reporters that Florida’s law was not created with the intention of meeting rigid timetable requirements for the elections of a U.S. Senator or a governor and so if counties need more time, the state ought to grant them waivers to make sure they have time to count every ballot.
The matter comes to the forefront Monday as all 67 counties launch into a machine recount of three statewide elections, including that for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat, in which Nelson trails Republican Gov. Rick Scott by just over 12,000 votes out of 8.2 million cast in the election.
The machine recounts are to be completed by Thursday. If the U.S. Senate race remains below the 0.25 percent difference threshold, and that race goes, as now expected, to a hand-recount, county canvassing boards have to finish that by Sunday. Already, there is grumbling that some might not make it, and one Democratic Florida House candidate Jim Bonfiglio has filed suit to get Palm Beach County’s deadlines extended.
“If they can’t meet the Sunday deadline, then that deadline ought to be extended,†Elias said. “And it ought to be extended to ensure that every vote is counted because obviously you would not want, of all places in America, Florida would not want different counting treatments in some counties than in others.â€
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