Washington (AFP) – Senior Republicans on Sunday doubled down on claims by Donald Trump that Democrats were attempting to steal Tuesday’s razor-thin senatorial race in Florida, accusing both the incumbent and election officials of fraud.
The intensifying feud comes 18 years after the Sunshine State found itself at the heart of a battle for the US presidency, when George W. Bush prevailed over Al Gore after recounts were halted by the Supreme Court.
Republican Rick Scott, the state’s governor until January when his term expires, launched into his rival Bill Nelson in his most direct terms to date Sunday, accusing him of orchestrating “fraud to try to win this election” as the contentious vote headed to a recount.
The theme was echoed by prominent Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, escalating a campaign led by the president who said Saturday on Twitter: “Trying to STEAL two big elections in Florida! We are watching closely!”
Democrats for their part have accused Republicans of attempting to prevent votes from being counted, and pointed to the fact law enforcement has not found any evidence to substantiate rigging claims.
Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to be the Speaker of the House when the new Congress begins it term in January, hit back.
“There’s no election fraud,” she told CBS News, adding: “My experience with the president is any time he charges somebody with something he’s just projecting what he might have done himself.”
Florida produced some of the nation’s closest results in Tuesday’s midterm voting, including apparently narrow victories by Scott over Nelson and, in a gubernatorial race, by Republican Ron DeSantis over Democrat Andrew Gillum.
But with late-counted ballots narrowing Scott’s lead to some 12,000 of the eight million votes cast — an edge of less than half a percent — state law mandates a recount. The governor’s race has also gone to a recount.
– Rejected ballots –
Scott had earlier accused Democratic election officials in two large counties of “rampant fraud,” but speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” he accused his rival by name.
“Senator Nelson is clearly trying to commit fraud to try to win this election,” he said. “That’s all this is.”
Scott added: “Somehow they came up with 93,000 votes after election night. We still don’t know how they came up with that.”
That number apparently included many mail-in and provisional ballots, typically among the last counted.
Speaking on CBS, Senator Graham denied Republicans had launched a campaign to undermine the integrity of the election.
“I think what undermines election integrity is Broward County can’t get their act together,” he said.
“The problem is not with President Trump’s rhetoric, it is the incompetence and mischief of Broward County.”
Nelson’s lawyers say local canvassing boards have wrongly rejected ballots when signatures did not precisely match those on record.
They said in a court filing that this led to the “disproportionate rejection of (mail-in) and provisional ballots cast by ethnic and racial minorities, as well as young, first-time voters.”
Those groups tend to lean Democratic.
Scott has asked state law enforcement authorities to investigate.
Scott also accused Nelson’s team of saying that a noncitizen should have the right to vote.
But that allegation apparently referred to only a single disputed ballot, which ultimately was not counted — and which Nelson’s aides later said should not have been counted.
Another recount is under way in neighboring Georgia, where Republican Brian Kemp, the secretary of state, holds a slim lead over Democrat Stacey Abrams, a state legislator. If the recount brings his total down to below 50 percent, the state will hold a runoff election.
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