Matt Caldwell has followed Gov. Rick Scott's lead in filing a lawsuit Friday against the Broward County Supervisor of Elections in one of the state's closest races.

The campaign of the Republican candidate for agricultural commissioner sent a news release Friday afternoon announcing that his attorneys filed a lawsuit in the 17th judicial circuit "asking the court to protect the integrity of all ballots and all public records relating to the election for Commissioner of Agriculture."

Caldwell thought he had edged out a victory in the agricultural commissioner race Tuesday night when he had about a 40,000 vote lead over Democratic candidate Nikki Fried.

But the latest vote count shows Caldwell losing by 3,120 votes to Fried. The difference between the candidates is .04 percent, signaling an automatic recount, and a likely manual recount.

"Over the course of the last two and half days, the Broward supervisor has continued to magically find boxes of ballots that have potentially altered the course of the race," Caldwell said in an interview Friday. "And after all that time, we still cannot get a straight answer as to where they came from, when they were cast. We just heard there is another magical box of 2,100 ballots they supposedly found here (Friday)."

He said what is happening in Broward County is unacceptable.

"The fact that it's my opponent's home county and you continue to have ballots just be found at random times without any explanation I think it just undermines the faith in the entire process and certainly leaves me doubtful about the current count that has been presented out there," Caldwell said.

Fried's campaign could not be reached for comment Friday.

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The suit asks the court to determine if Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes illegally included ballots after polls closed on Tuesday, Nov. 6, and if so, "to remove those votes from the electoral tabulation," the news release reads. "The campaign also filed a public records request for all vote counts and any communications between Snipes, her executive team, her staff, and any third parties talking to the county about counting ballots."

The release goes on to criticize Snipes' office for "a record of gross incompetence and illegal behavior," and calls for a "forensic reconstruction of when ballots were cast and how."

"There is no serious person that looks at this and doesn't suspect there is something incredibly wrong going here, and we are going to get to the bottom of it by demanding answers through the court of law," Caldwell said.

Campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said in the statement: “On Tuesday, the voters of Florida elected Matt Caldwell as our next Commissioner of Agriculture. We are committed to upholding the will of the voters and protecting the integrity of Florida’s electoral process from those seeking to erode our democracy."

Caldwell is being represented by George LeMieux, a former U.S. senator from Florida, based in Fort Lauderdale. He also served as deputy attorney general and chief of staff to former governor Charlie Crist.

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