Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Nov. 11 said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is attempting to commit voter fraud to win the election.
“Sen. Nelson is clearly trying to commit fraud to win this election, that’s all this is,” Scott told Fox News. When he was asked to elaborate, Scott said, “Well, it’s his team.” Nelson, he said, has been a “sore loser.”
He added: “His lawyers said that a noncitizen should vote, that’s one. Two, he’s gone to trial and said that fraudulent ballots should be counted, ballots have already been thrown out because they were not done properly. He said those should be counted.”
Earlier in the week, Scott, who is running for Nelson’s seat in the election, filed lawsuits against election officials in Broward County and Palm Beach County.
On Friday, Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips ruled there had been “a violation of the Florida Constitution” and Florida’s public records acts after Broward officials didn’t turn over the requested records.
“We have very specific laws in the state to try to prevent fraud,” Scott told Fox. “We had to go to court to force the supervisor of elections in Palm Beach County and Broward County to comply with the law, which is there to prevent fraud.”
Fox News reporter Chris Wallace said Nelson was asked to be on the show, but he declined.
Brenda Snipes, the Broward County supervisor of elections who has been accused of incompetence and mishandling in previous elections, was “unwilling to disclose records revealing how many electors voted, how many ballots have been canvassed, and how many ballots remain to be canvassed,” Scott said.
Scott added: “They were not letting party officials review, when they were reviewing ballots. They didn’t report on time. ... We still don’t understand how they went in these two counties and dramatically increased ... another 93,000 votes were cast, or somehow they came up with 93,000 votes after election night.”
The governor said state law enforcement officials are looking into the matter.
Nelson, through a spokesperson, dismissed Scott’s legal actions.
“The goal here is to see that all the votes in Florida are counted and counted accurately. Rick Scott’s action appears to be politically motivated and borne out of desperation,” the spokesperson said.
“Rick Scott was up by 50,000+ votes on Election Day, now they ‘found’ many votes and he is only up 15,000 votes. ‘The Broward Effect.’ How come they never find Republican votes?” he also asked.
The U.S. Senate currently stands at 51 Republicans to 46 Democrats. Two other elections are up in the air, including Arizona, where Democrat Kyrsten Sinema leads Republican Martha McSally, and Mississippi, which is headed to a runoff this month.
