Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared victory on Sunday as officials in his state announced there will be a recount in his U.S. Senate race against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, along with recounts in the races for governor and agriculture commissioner.
“Bill Nelson’s a sore loser. We’ve won,” Mr. Scott said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I’ve had to win this election twice now. I will be going to Washington as the next U.S. senator from Florida, and I’m going to work hard to change the direction of this country like we did in Florida.”
The Florida secretary of state announced Saturday that there will be recounts in the three races. Results from “machine” recounts are supposed to be reported by 3 p.m. Thursday.
Mr. Scott said Mr. Nelson and his team are trying to commit “fraud” to win the election by saying that a non-citizen should be allowed to vote and that fraudulent ballots should be counted.
Since election night, Mr. Scott’s lead over Mr. Nelson has fallen from about 60,000 to about 12,500, or 0.15 percent.
Judges have found that Broward and Palm Beach County officials did not comply with transparency laws regarding the vote-counting.
“The judges have already said, they clearly violated the law,” Mr. Scott said.
Mr. Nelson has said that votes are being counted, not found.
“We have every expectation the recount will be full and fair and will continue taking action to ensure every vote is counted without interference or efforts to undermine the democratic process,” Mr. Nelson said Saturday. “We believe when every legal ballot is counted we’ll win this election.”
President Trump said he’s also keeping an eye on the proceedings.
“Trying to STEAL two big elections in Florida! We are watching closely!” Mr. Trump tweeted Saturday.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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