TALLAHASSEE — Republican Gov. Rick Scott, claiming south Florida election officials are fraudulently mishandling ballots, ordered the state's top law enforcement agency Thursday to investigate and filed a lawsuit demanding access to ballots narrowing his lead against Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

"I will not stand idly by while unethical liberals try to steal an election," Scott said during a hastily called media appearance Thursday night outside the Governor's Mansion.

"The people of Florida deserve fairness and transparency," Scott said in prepared remarks. He did not take questions from reporters gathered for the appearance after announcing he was ordering a state agency to investigate an election in which he was a candidate.

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Scott accused election officials in Broward and Palm Beach counties, two Democratic strongholds, of "rampant fraud" in a vote counting process that has continued two days after the election and sharply narrowed GOP leads in statewide races, even flipping the state agriculture commission race from a Republican to Democratic lead of more than 2,000 votes on Thursday.

“Tonight I am asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate this immediately and I am considering every single legal option available,” he said. “No ragtag group of liberal activists or lawyers from D.C. will be allowed to steal this election from the voters of this great state.”

President Trump took to Twitter Thursday night to add his support to the accusation of fraud in at least one Florida county.

"Florida voted for Rick Scott!", Trump tweeted.

Efforts to reach election officials in Broward and Palm Beach counties failed Thursday night.

Nelson's campaign responded to Scott's claim by criticizing it as a sign he is fearful of losing the election.

“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,” Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin said.

The additional ballots counted over the past two days in Broward and Palm Beach have chopped Scott's statewide lead over Nelson by more than half to about 15,000 votes out of more than 8.1 million cast. The additional votes, identified by the county offices as absentee and early in-person votes, also narrowed Republican Ron DeSantis' more than 80,000-vote lead in the Florida governor's race over Democrat Andrew Gillum to about 36,000.

The small margins in those races likely will trigger an automatic recount under Florida law once all of the votes are submitted to the state on Saturday.

"Every day since the election, the left-wing activists in Broward County have been coming out with more and more ballots out of nowhere," Scott said. "We all know what is going on. Everyone in Florida knows exactly what is happening. Their goal is to keep mysteriously finding more votes until the election turns out the way they want it.”

While ballot counting continued Thursday in Palm Beach and Broward counties, the state's other 65 counties reported completing counts from their early and absentee ballots hours after the polls closed Tuesday.

Earlier on Thursday, Scott's campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee filed a state lawsuit demanding access to the south Florida ballots, claiming Broward Elections Supervisor Brenda Sniples withheld information about the ballots and requests for the campaign to inspect and review the vote-counting process.

"The lack of transparency raises substantial concerns about the validity of the

election process," states the lawsuit, filed by Scott's campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Scott's lawsuit demands a hearing to discuss the handling of the Broward ballots and immediate access to inspect and copy ballots.