Recounts, runoffs loom over high-profile elections in Florida, Georgia

By Joseph Ax and Letitia Stein

 

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams waves to supporters during a midterm election night party in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis

 

(Reuters) - High-profile U.S. elections in Georgia, Florida and Arizona remained unresolved on Thursday, two days after the vote, with the prospect of legal challenges, recounts and ballot reviews setting the stage for possible weeks of uncertainty.

 

The still-undecided races will not tip the balance in either chamber of Congress but include contests in parts of the country important to the futures of both parties and potentially to President Donald Trump's re-election chances in two years.

 

In Georgia, where Republican Brian Kemp declared victory in the governor's contest on Wednesday on a narrow lead, campaign officials for Democrat Stacey Abrams on Thursday vowed to pursue litigation to ensure all votes are counted.

 

In Florida's U.S. Senate race, Republican Governor Rick Scott, with his lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson narrowing, filed lawsuits on Thursday against election supervisors in two counties accusing them of failing to follow election law. A spokesman for Nelson, Dan McLaughlin, said the lawsuits were politically motivated and "borne out of desperation."

 

The Florida governor's race between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum also appeared headed for an automatic recount, after DeSantis' lead narrowed on Thursday, despite Gillum having already conceded.

 

The hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Arizona between two congresswomen, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Martha McSally, appeared days away from a final call, with hundreds of thousands of ballots yet to be tallied. Sinema took a slight lead over McSally on Thursday night as more ballots were counted.

 

Democrats on Tuesday won a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives after eight years as the minority party in the chamber, while Republicans appeared likely to expand their two-seat advantage in the U.S. Senate.

 

Another cluster of races in the lower house where votes are still being finalised could add to the Democrats' new majority, strengthening their hand as they seek to counter Trump's policies.

 

Republican U.S. Representative Karen Handel conceded defeat to Democrat Lucy McBath, a gun control advocate, in a suburban Atlanta district on Thursday.

 

Democrats also picked up two Republican districts in Washington state and New Mexico on Wednesday night, although Republicans held on to an open North Carolina district in a close race.

 

According to media outlet calls and the data company DDHQ, Democrats now have flipped 32 seats - nine more than they needed to take over the House - with seven Republican-held districts still too close to call, including four in California, where many ballots are yet to be counted.

 

ABRAMS STILL FIGHTING

Abrams is vying to become the first black woman elected to serve as governor of a U.S. state.

 

The Georgia contest came under national scrutiny because of Kemp's role as the state's top election official. Voting rights groups and prominent Democrats accused the Republican of using his position to suppress minority votes, an allegation he strongly denied.

 

Kemp said on Thursday he had resigned as Georgia's secretary of state, saying the move would ensure "public confidence" in the final results, while freeing him to focus on preparing for his new role as governor.

 

The Abrams campaign told reporters that there were enough uncounted ballots to force a runoff. Under state law, if no candidate reaches 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers advance to a second vote in December. The election included a third-party candidate.

 

Kemp's vote count stood at 50.33 percent as of Thursday, according to unofficial results.

 

"We are in this race until we are convinced that every vote is counted," the Abrams campaign's chairwoman, Allegra Lawrence Hardy, told a news conference. The campaign said it would file the first of what could be a wave of legal actions on behalf of voters in one county who had difficulty voting absentee.

 

The Kemp campaign accused Abrams of trying to "steal" the election.

 

"Stacey Abrams can't accept the fact that Georgians rejected her radical agenda at the ballot box, so now she's desperately trying to steal this election in the courtroom," said campaign spokesman Ryan Mahoney, in a statement.

 

In Florida, Scott's lead was narrowing on Thursday. Nelson trailed by around 15,000 votes, or 0.18 percent, below the state's 0.25 percent threshold for a hand recount.

 

"The results are unknown," said Marc Elias, an attorney for Nelson's campaign. Historically, Democrats tend to pick up votes in recounts, especially hand recounts, he said.

 

Elias also pledged legal action if the campaign found that rejected ballots due to signature mismatches were disproportionately hurting minority voters.

 

Scott's lawsuits accuse Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes and Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher of mishandling the ballot count and preventing observers from having full access as votes are counted. Snipes and Bucher did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Scott also said he was asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate.

 

“I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election,” Scott told reporters.

 

In the Florida governor's race, DeSantis' lead had winnowed to about 38,500 votes on Thursday afternoon, or 0.47 percent of the vote. The state conducts an electronic recount when the margin falls below 0.5 percent.

 

Gillum's campaign said it was prepared for any outcome, including a recount.

 

"We want every vote counted," Gillum said in a video posted to Facebook on Thursday. "In spite of the fact that we're a little bit down in the numbers, we're hopeful that every single vote will be counted in this race."

 

(Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York and Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida; Editing by Scott Malone, Cynthia Osterman and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-11-09

No one has ever seen that s kind of victory before-Trump

Like magic, ballots appear uncounted 48 hrs after polls close, in Broward county, again.

 

and surprise, she is a Democrat

Edited November 9, 20187 yr by mcambl61

The AZ-SEN race seems to have closed up?

 

Not sure if the closeness will trigger a recount?

 

Arizona GOP sues to limit vote count in 2 Democratic counties, or expand it statewide

 

On Friday, a judge in Arizona will hear a challenge from four local Republican parties who sued Wednesday night to limit the votes counted in Maricopa and Pima counties, the state's two biggest and most Democratic counties, or expand the ability of rural, Republican-leaning counties to count contested mail-in ballots, too. Thanks to votes counted mostly in Maricopa County, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema took a narrow lead in Arizona's still-unresolved Senate race.

 

https://theweek.com/speedreads/806815/arizona-gop-sues-limit-vote-count-2-democratic-counties-expand-statewide

 

 

1 minute ago, mtls2005 said:

The AZ-SEN race seems to have closed up?

Arizona has a very high number of mail-in ballots. It perenially takes a long time to finalise the totals due to their signature verification procedures. This time the delay has become meaningful as the race is very close. There are still several hundred thousand ballots to be added to the total. If a recount is required, it will take a fraction of the time that it takes to verify all the signatures. Expect to wait a few days yet.

 

I think Sinema has it now.

Voter suppression on a large scale, especially in Georgia apparently. 

Disgraceful in a country like the USA 

15 minutes ago, Jonnapat said:

Voter suppression on a large scale, especially in Georgia apparently. 

Disgraceful in a country like the USA 

What made it more disgraceful than usual is that one of the candidates running for governor was directing the voting system in Georgia and refused to step down from office until after the election.

1 hour ago, mcambl61 said:

Like magic, ballots appear uncounted 48 hrs after polls close, in Broward county, again.

 

and surprise, she is a Democrat

well broward is Debbie wasserman shultz country. who wouldv guessed lol

 

Once more its Supervisor Brenda Snipes 

https://www.local10.com/news/elections/broward-county-elections-supervisor-explains-why-its-taking-so-long-to-count-ballots

Earlier this year a circuit court judge ruled that Snipes broke federal and state law by too quickly destroying ballots from the August 2016 primaries, even though there was a pending lawsuit seeking access to the ballots.

 

There is a video on this link with a funny quote at 1:43

1 hour ago, mcambl61 said:

Like magic, ballots appear uncounted 48 hrs after polls close, in Broward county, again.

 

and surprise, she is a Democrat

Like magic, ballots disappeared after polls close. Glad they finally showed up.

2 hours ago, mcambl61 said:

surprise, she is a Democrat

Surprise, the Broward County Election Supervisor is a partisan position.

People really have to be fundamentally dishonest to try to tamper with election results.

Looks at present Arizona flipped to Democrat winning wow the republicans are getting spanked!!!worst losses since watergate even with the jerrymandering hows that winning coming along Donald?

Edited November 9, 20187 yr by Tug
Spell check

Troll post removed.

 

7 hours ago, Tchooptip said:

People really have to be fundamentally dishonest to try to tamper with election results.

Or people's right to vote.

48 minutes ago, pegman said:

Or people's right to vote.

citizens right to vote. 

9 hours ago, Tug said:

Looks at present Arizona flipped to Democrat winning wow the republicans are getting spanked!!!worst losses since watergate even with the jerrymandering hows that winning coming along Donald?

uh, no

 

 

1994	Bill Clinton	Democratic	-54: (258 --> 204)	-10: (57 --> 47)
1998			+4: (207 --> 211)	0: (45 --> 45)
2002	George W. Bush	Republican	+8: (221 --> 229)	+2: (49 --> 51)
2006			-32: (231 --> 199)	-6: (55 --> 49)
2010	Barack Obama	Democratic	-63: (256 --> 193)	-6: (57 --> 51)
2014			-13: (201 --> 188)	-9: (53 --> 44)
20182	Donald Trump	Republican	-29: (235 --> 206)	+3: (51 --> 54)

2 hours ago, Srinivas said:

citizens right to vote. 

You forgot to qualify that as "non-minority" citizens.

1 minute ago, pegman said:

You forgot to qualify that as "non-minority" citizens.

im a minority citizen. naturalized. Followed the rules.

 

4 minutes ago, mcambl61 said:

uh, no

 

 

1994	Bill Clinton	Democratic	-54: (258 --> 204)	-10: (57 --> 47)
1998			+4: (207 --> 211)	0: (45 --> 45)
2002	George W. Bush	Republican	+8: (221 --> 229)	+2: (49 --> 51)
2006			-32: (231 --> 199)	-6: (55 --> 49)
2010	Barack Obama	Democratic	-63: (256 --> 193)	-6: (57 --> 51)
2014			-13: (201 --> 188)	-9: (53 --> 44)
20182	Donald Trump	Republican	-29: (235 --> 206)	+3: (51 --> 54)

I expected florida but trying this az? lol

13 hours ago, Jonnapat said:

Voter suppression on a large scale, especially in Georgia apparently. 

Disgraceful in a country like the USA 

having a requirement for your govt ID and voter registration ID match is not suppression

18 hours ago, mcambl61 said:

Like magic, ballots appear uncounted 48 hrs after polls close, in Broward county, again.

 

"Magic" is a word used by the under-informed to explain something they don't fully understand.

 

No, it's not magic. Broward and Palm Beach counties have a long history of slow reporting and careful counting.  Do you have some problem wit all the votes being counted?  You sound like Rick Scott, who said:

 

"Their goal is to keep mysteriously finding more votes until the election turns out the way they want".

 

Yes, Governor (for now) Scott, you may disagree with it, but the goal of vote counting is to find all the votes and count them.

6 minutes ago, mcambl61 said:

uh, no.

 

Putting aside history for a moment, the question remains to be answered (and I notice you didn't answer it):  Do you have some problem wit all the votes being counted?

Off topic post removed.

Gov. Scott screwed up! Apparently the Elected state election  officer in Broward county Florida had a history of screw ups and violations dating back to 2003.

So why wasn't she fired ? The governor is the only one that has authorization to fire a elected official!

He had the opportunity to do this and should of known prior to announcing that he was running for Senate!  Sad, it is Nelson still

Edited November 10, 20187 yr by riclag

38 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

Putting aside history for a moment, the question remains to be answered (and I notice you didn't answer it):  Do you have some problem wit all the votes being counted?

counted under the rules, no. counted when breaking the rules YES

I'm anxiously awaiting to here if any counting rules have been broken.  I guess I'll have to stay tuned, but in the mean time let's make sure all the votes are counted.  If some box of ballots is "mysteriously" found behind a school, then the question is not if they should be counted, but who put them there.

Trump promulgating unfounded conspiracy theories to rile up his base and that could easily lead to violent reprisals (Pizzagate, Pittsburgh,.....) Way beyond irresponsible and typical of a dictator in a nation that had never known democracy (Rwanda, DR Congo,....). This is not the first time we have seen this.

Stupid incompetent  GOP officials ! You would of thought they would of had all their legalities covered before him announcing running for senate! 

They got to eat this major tactical error  and learn from it. If Desantas is officially announced Governor his first order of day should be to fire that Election boss in that Florida county because of all her ballot issues dating back to 2003

20 hours ago, mcambl61 said:

Like magic, ballots appear uncounted 48 hrs after polls close, in Broward county, again.

 

and surprise, she is a Democrat

There were many issues in  GOP Florida controlled counties. The denial of  voting rights for  the afro americans in Georgia was sickening. The voter suppression was a throwback  to the  days of  lester maddox 

6 hours ago, mcambl61 said:

having a requirement for your govt ID and voter registration ID match is not suppression

Government officials Intentionally misspelling names or refusing to correct errors and denying victims of such events their right to vote is suppression. The US Federal Court said so.