This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Florida and Georgia were preparing for ballot recounts on Friday, as contentious races for the US Senate and state governorships descended into controversy and lawsuits amid Republicans’ accusations of Democratic vote tampering, and counter-questions about potentially confusing ballot papers.

Florida elections for Senate and governor heading towards recounts – live updates Read more

The Florida candidates for Senate – current governor Rick Scott, a Republican, and Democrat Bill Nelson – were separated by just 15,000 votes on Friday, which could lead to a recount.

The governors’ elections in Florida and Georgia were almost as close, raising the possibility of a further recount and a possible runoff election respectively.

Florida’s Senate race was thrown into chaos on Thursday night when Scott, without providing evidence, accused “unethical liberals” of attempting to “steal this election”.

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Donald Trump weighed in in support of Scott on Friday, saying he would send lawyers to Florida to expose unspecified “fraud” and, apparently jokingly, suggested Russia may be to blame.

“You mean they are just now finding votes in Florida and Georgia – but the Election was on Tuesday? Let’s blame the Russians and demand an immediate apology from President Putin!” Trump tweeted.

In a press conference at the governor’s mansion Scott said he had filed two lawsuits against election supervisors in the traditionally Democratic-leaning Broward county and Palm Beach. Scott suggested election supervisors there may have been trying to inflate the Democratic vote.

Nelson’s campaign said Scott’s impromptu investigation was “politically motivated”. Scott is just 0.2% in front of Nelson in the Senate race – 15,071 votes ahead out of more than 8.1m cast.

Nelson’s campaign has hired lawyer Marc Elias, who has previously worked for Hillary Clinton and former US senator Al Franken, to investigate whether all votes have been counted in Florida.

Nelson’s campaign filed its own lawsuit to ask a federal judge to extend Saturday’s deadline for county supervisors to submit their tallies to the state, demanding extra time for every vote to be counted.

Elias has suggested there may have been an error in counting some votes in Broward county and believes the gap between Scott and Nelson will continue to narrow.

“As soon as Democrats sent their best Election stealing lawyer, Marc Elias, to Broward County they miraculously started finding Democrat votes. Don’t worry, Florida - I am sending much better lawyers to expose the FRAUD!” the president tweeted.

As Scott announced his lawsuits, questions began to be asked about ballot papers which did not clearly indicate how to vote in the Senate election.

CNN reported that nearly 25,000 voters in Broward county had cast a vote for governor but not for one of the Senate candidates – a discrepancy that CNN said was not matched in other counties.

Photos shared on Twitter showed that on the ballot papers in Broward county the section where voters could opt for Scott or Nelson was located in the bottom left of the ballot, beneath instructions on how to vote. In other counties the section for Scott and Nelson was presented more prominently at the top of the ballot. Broward county leans heavily Democratic, meaning the different ballots could have resulted in fewer votes for Nelson.

Election officials in Broward and Palm Beach, two of Florida’s most heavily populated counties, have insisted they were held up by a large number of early and mail-in ballots, with the Broward election supervisor’s website reporting Friday that only a number of early voting returns were still outstanding.

On Friday night, a Broward County judge ordered the immediate release of voter information sought by Scott. Lawyers for supervisor of elections Brenda Snipes had argued that releasing the information would would interfere with ongoing efforts to finish counting ballots.

Florida welcomes back its 1.5m 'returning citizens' after ex-felons regain voting rights Read more

Scott’s lawsuits came as Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate for Florida governor, said he was preparing for a recount in the state and had hired attorney Barry Richard, who represented George Bush in the 2000 recount. Gillum conceded to his opponent, Ron DeSantis, on Tuesday, but as more votes have been counted the race has narrowed. Gillum was 0.4% behind DeSantis on Friday morning, with 99.98% of the vote counted.

Automatic statewide recounts in the senate and governor’s races are likely to be triggered at lunchtime Saturday, when unofficial returns from Florida’s 67 counties must be delivered to secretary of state Ken Detzner.

Following the recounts, Florida’s elections canvassing committee meets on 20 November to make all the results official.

“On Tuesday night, the Gillum for Governor campaign operated with the best information available about the number of outstanding ballots left to count. Since that time, it has become clear there are many more uncounted ballots than was originally reported,” Gillum’s campaign said. “We are committed to ensuring every single vote in Florida is counted.”

In a tweet late Thursday, Gillum did not withdraw the concession, but hit back at Scott’s accusation that leftwing activists were at work. “Counting votes isn’t partisan – it’s democracy,” he wrote.

Play Video 11:48 Stacey Abrams v Brian Kemp: inside the bitter battle for Georgia's soul – video

In Georgia, the Republican candidate for governor, Brian Kemp, has claimed victory over Democrat Stacey Abrams. Kemp leads Abrams with 50.3% of the vote and has claimed victory, but Abrams, who is bidding to become the first female black governor in the US, has yet to concede, saying that some votes have not yet been counted.

If Kemp wins less than 50% of the vote that would trigger an automatic runoff election in December.

Neither the Associated Press nor CNN have called the race.

Meanwhile, in Arizona’s Senate race, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema took a minuscule lead of about 9,000 out of 1.9 million votes counted after trailing since Tuesday. The race remained too close to call with at least 400,000 ballots still uncounted.