Nelson attorney predicts victory

Marc Elias, the lead recount lawyer for Senator Bill Nelson held a press conference earlier today. He predicted that the majority of the provisional ballots “will be more Democratic and that we will therefore see the overall margin narrow.”

Gov. Rick Scott’s lead over Nelson has shrunk to 14,985 votes since Tuesday night. The attorney said he didn’t know how many provisional ballots exist across the state.

“Unfortunately, not every county was willing to provide us with the information that we sought under the Sunshine Act,” said Elias. “We took legal action in a couple of instances to get access to a list of voters listed as provisional voters. This is public information, and it’s information that we sought in order to insure that every individual who cast a lawful ballot has an opportunity to have that ballot counted, and counted accurately.”

Florida law requires that the counties complete this canvass process by Saturday at noon. Elias warned, “I certainly hope there is nothing that Governor Scott or his folks are going to try to do to delay the counties meeting that deadline. I think it is the obligation of both campaigns to work cooperatively with counties to insure that we have a smooth count and then ultimately a smooth recount.”

He had no doubt that the supervisor of elections will have to machine recounts for the Senate, Governor and Agriculture Commissioner races because the margins are within 0.5 percent. After the recount any races within 0.25 percent will have a mandatory hand recount.

Elias said, “Counties are already starting to announce that they are prepared to conduct the recount starting Sunday morning, so I hope that everyone in the state has got a place to go get your coffee and donuts early on Sunday, because at least Hillsborough County and others have announced an early start on Sunday, and we commend the counties for being diligent in beginning this process so it gets done in a timely fashion.”

The Nelson campaign yesterday filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Florida.

“Under Florida Law, vote by mail ballots are only counted if the signature on the voter certificate matches the electoral signature in the registration books or precinct register, “ explained Elias. “Also, Florida Law provides that a provisional ballot is only counted if the canvassing board concludes that—and now I’m quoting— “the signature on the provisional ballot certificate and affirmation matches the signature on the voter registration.”

He continued, “The fact is that these laws taken together condition the right to vote if the names of Floridians who vote by mail or ones that are voting provisionally on the untrained opinion of canvassing boards or election officials as to whether or not signatures match. As the Northern District held in a similar lawsuit in 2016 that I was involved in litigating, the State quoted a litany of procedures when comparing signatures and this results in ‘a complete lack of uniformity.’”

According to the attorney, the problem is the lack of uniform standards for counting signatures and the process is “highly error prone.”

Elias pointed that the time spent counting ballots after the polls closed isn’t a flaw in the system.

“We allow counties this period after an election to insure that every vote is counted, and part of that is a canvassing process, at which point the counties go back and check the election results that were unofficial…and insure that there were no transcription errors, there were no misread tapes, there were no machines left out, there were no ballots that hadn’t been counted, that all the provisionals were dealt with,” he said.

The attorney hinted that Rick Scott knows his campaign is in trouble.

“The tone and the tenor and his behavior last night is not suggestive of a campaign that believes it’s winning,” said Elias. “So if you want to know why I think it’s going to tighten, just look at the behavior of your Governor. He had a hastily called press conference. He, himself, said that as ballots are being counted it is tightening. Then he made some veiled threat or suggestion that he was going to somehow involve law enforcement.”

He said it would be highly inappropriate for “the Governor to interject his law enforcement authority to prevent the counting of ballots that have been lawfully cast, especially in an election in which he stands.”

Elias, of course, was optimistic that the recount would be beneficial for his client.

“Based on my experience in other states in recounts, I would expect that when we go into a machine recount and then a hand recount,” he said. “Right now the result is unknown as to who has won, and if I had to place a bet, I would say that it is more likely than not that Senator Nelson will prevail in a recount, and therefore be sworn in again to the United States Senate for another term in January.”