Rick Scott Files Three Lawsuits in Florida Recount
CABRERA: Happening right now, votes are being recounted in Florida's razor-thin races for Senate and governor. And the Palm Beach supervisor of elections says she needs more time, adding, quote, "It is impossible to meet the Thursday recount deadline." Another big development, Republican senate candidate, Rick Scott, the current governor, filing three lawsuits in state court. This coming hours after Scott upped the ante accusing his Democratic opponent, Bill Nelson, of fraud.</s>RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA SENATE CANDIDATE: Senator Nelson is clearly trying to commit fraud to try to win this election. That's all this is.</s>CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: Wait a second. I want to pick up on that. You're accusing Bill Nelson of trying to commit fraud?</s>SCOTT: His lawyer said that a noncitizen should vote, that's one. Number 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.</s>WALLACE: And you think that is the senator himself is committing fraud?</s>SCOTT: Well, it's his team.</s>CABRERA: Nelson, the Democrat, firing back, "If Rick Scott wanted to make sure every legal ballot is counted, he would not be suing to try and stop voters from having their legal ballot counted as intended." Let's get to CNN's Ryan Nobles, still on the ground in Florida's capital of Tallahassee. Ryan, you've been there all week. So many developments. Let's start here with this new deadline for the recount. If the counties can't meet it, what happens next?</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're right, Ana. It's already been a wild day on this first full day of the recount in Florida. And this development in Palm Beach I think is a very significant one. Susan Butcher, who is the supervisor of elections in Palm Beach County telling our Greg Kreig, that it is simply impossible for her county to meet that deadline of having all the ballots recounted by Thursday. The reason that is significant, Ana, is because Florida law specifically says only the votes that can be counted by the deadline are the ones that will actually be counted in the overall total. And for Democrats, that could be a big blow because Palm Beach is one of their big counties. If they have any hope of flipping these results and someone like Bill Nelson overtaking Rick Scott, they need every single vote in Palm Beach County to be counted. And if they can't get it done in time, that could be a problem. Now, I would believe that this could potentially open the door for another lawsuit from Bill Nelson and his team, pleading with perhaps a federal court or even a local court to allow Palm Beach County's deadline to be extended so those votes can be counted. But at this point, Ana, the supervisor of election being clear, she can't get it done in time and that could mean a whole host of votes that were counted in the original count may not be counted in this recount.</s>CABRERA: And in fact, you and I both reached out to the communications director with the Secretary of State's office, which is called the Department of State there in Florida. And she responded just now via text, telling me Florida law states that if a county does not submit their results by the deadline, then the results on file at that time take their place. So that seems to be the official word at this hour. Ryan, tell us now more about these lawsuits Scott filed today.</s>NOBLES: Yes, that's right. So Rick Scott's filing a trio of lawsuits and they are dealing with both Broward and Palm Beach County. The most significant one is one that's directed at the supervisor of election there is in Broward County, Branda Snipes. And it's accusing her of counting a batch of ballots after that noon deadline. And based on, you know, our communication already with the Secretary of State, that would be against federal law. You cannot count ballots after the deadline. And to kind of further illustrate this, there was a group of 266 ballots that were discovered in a mail facility in Miami-Dade County that didn't make it to the election facility until after the deadline, and they are not counting those votes. So, Rick Scott's team saying that that batch of votes should not be included. Now, the other two lawsuits involve a direction that they're asking for the sheriff's department in both of those counties and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to basically be in charge of the voting machines and the ballots while the recount is ongoing and after it ends. They want those machines and those ballots to be impounded to prevent there from any malfeasance happening. It will ultimately be a judge that decides whether or not that happens because it is the responsibility of the supervisors of elections to be in charge of the machines and the ballots in these two counties. So, you know, Ana, if it feels like your head is spinning, that is a good way to describe it. Here we are only day one of this lengthy and in-depth recount. We've already got a flurry of lawsuits, a flurry of problems, and we still do not know who the next U.S. senator and governor of the state of Florida will be.</s>CABRERA: That's Florida for you, right? Ryan Nobles, thank you for your continued reporting there. Great job. Top Democrats say they have sent a letter to the Department of Justice demanding that Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker recuse himself from the Russia investigation. We'll tell you why some are even threatening a subpoena.