The election controversy, right down to Democrats’ call to count every vote, echoes the state’s most-infamous election meltdown, the 2000 presidential race. | Getty Images Scott asks for Broward voting probe as his Nelson lead shrinks

Gov. Rick Scott took the unprecedented step Thursday of asking state law enforcement to investigate election officials playing a key role in a recount involving his U.S. Senate campaign. The impromptu announcement was organized by his campaign and held at the Florida Governor's Mansion, the governor's taxpayer-funded home.

Scott’s request to have the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigate embattled Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes came moments after his Senate campaign joined the National Republican Senatorial Committee in filing two emergency lawsuits against Snipes and Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher, saying their offices are not complying with state public records laws.


The announcement, blurring Scott’s official roles as governor and U.S. Senate candidate, is the latest twist in a midterm election cycle that has once again put Florida in the national spotlight for election gaffes. In simple terms, Scott is asking state law enforcement to investigate two local election officials playing a pivotal role in a recount that involves his run against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is overseen by the Florida Cabinet, not Scott directly, but in 2015 he had a big role in ousting the department’s commissioner and installing current Commissioner Rick Swearingen. Gretl Plessinger, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the agency will open an investigation at Scott’s request.

Scott had a narrow lead over Nelson after election night, but that has continued to narrow. A recount had already been set for Nov. 10, but on Thursday night the margin narrowed to .18 percent, which is in the range to trigger a manual recount under Florida law. That has not yet been called.

The fact that votes continue to come out of Broward, a Democrat stronghold, has been a point of contention for Democrats since election night. Snipes, a Democrat appointed to her post by Republican former Gov. Jeb Bush, has taken much of the heat not only for her performance this year, but for a resume littered with high-profile election gaffes.

In 48 the hours since the polls closed, “Broward and Palm Beach counties are still finding and counting ballots,” Scott told reporters Thursday evening, declining to take questions. “The people of Florida deserve fairness and transparency, and the supervisors are failing to give it to them.”

Without providing evidence of fraud, Scott said he was concerned about “rampant fraud,” noting that Palm Beach has added 15,000 votes since election night and Broward County’s vote count went from 634,000 to more than 695,000.

The event was hastily organized by Scott’s Senate campaign, whose staff was advancing the event in jeans and t-shirts. Those in Scott’s formal office said they were not aware of what was happening beforehand.

The lawsuits filed with the NRSC, which was involved with his campaign, said that both Palm Beach and Broward county election officials are not complying with state public record laws.

“Two days after voting has concluded, the Supervisor Of Elections is unwilling to disclose records revealing how many electors voted, how many ballots have been canvassed, and how many ballots remain to be canvassed,” Scott’s lawsuit, filed with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said.

“The lack of transparency raises substantial concerns about the validity of the election process,” the suit said. “An emergency hearing is necessary as the Canvassing Board is obligated to submit the unofficial elections results to the Division of Elections by noon November 10, 2018.”

The suit was filed by attorney Aliette Rodz with the firm Shutts & Bowen LLP and George Levesque, an attorney with GrayRobinson.

Critics of the governor quickly took to social media to note the irony of a public-records lawsuit being filed by Scott, who has been sued multiple times for refusing to disclose public records and was even caught using a private email account to conduct state business. Scott had lied about the private email account in claiming he only used it to talk to family members.

Scott’s announcement was criticized by Democrats who say he just wants to stop all the votes from being counted so he can be declared the winner against Nelson. Nelson’s campaign questioned the legality of the governor making a campaign-related announcement from the Governor’s Mansion, a state building.

“The goal here is to see that all the votes in Florida are counted and counted accurately,” Nelson spokesperson Dan McLaughlin said of the pending recount. “Rick Scott’s action appears to be politically motivated and borne out of desperation.”

Scott’s lawsuit comes as a rising bipartisan chorus of voices has begun to call for the removal of Snipes, whose office has been the subject of a string of controversies over the years. Democrats fault her office for a poor ballot design that may have cost Nelson votes because thousands of voters may not have seen the race tucked into the lower right hand corner of the ballot.

The election controversy, right down to Democrats’ call to count every vote, echoes the state’s most-infamous election meltdown, the 2000 presidential race, in which Broward County played a central role during a recount of tens of thousands of undervotes and overvotes that was ultimately stopped by the U.S. Supreme Court.

For the past two days, Snipes could not or would not provide campaigns, the press or the public with a tally of how many votes were left to be counted while tens of thousands of new votes — many of them vote-by-mail absentee ballots received on Election Day, in the Democrat-heavy county poured in.

The changing vote counts led to recounts in the U.S. Senate race that pits Scott against Nelson. On Thursday afternoon, the margins in the governor’s race between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum fell below the 0.5 percentage point state threshold for triggering a recount, thanks in large part to Broward’s ever-changing vote totals. In both of those cases, the Republicans continue to hold leads, even thought those have gotten smaller since election night.

The Florida agriculture commissioner race, a statewide elected post, is headed to a recount to be conducted by hand. It features Republican state Rep. Matt Caldwell against Democrat Nikki Fried. Fried was trailing after election night, but has since taken a small lead.

As the margins became smaller, Republicans became angrier and, in the case of Sen. Marco Rubio, more conspiratorial. Rubio on Twitter accused Snipes of breaking the law concerning the timely counting of ballots, but didn’t specify what law that was. He also noted that Snipes had lost court battles concerning her office’s policy of handling absentee ballots and its destruction of ballots that a 2016 congressional candidate wanted to review.

“#Broward election supervisors ongoing violation of #Florida law requiring timely reporting isn’t just annoying incompetence,” Rubio said. “It has opened the door for lawyers to come here & try to steal a seat in the U.S. Senate & Florida Cabinet.”

Rubio also referenced the Aug. 28 school board race involving the father of a slain Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student, Ryan Petty, who thought he was going to force a runoff against an incumbent but learned the next day that a crush of newly “found” ballots gave his opponent just enough of an edge to win the race.

As the nation’s eyes — and state election law lawyers — began focusing on Broward, Petty said Snipes should leave office or be removed by the governor.