President Trump waded into the controversy surrounding election results in Florida Thursday night, backing a state investigation Republican Gov. Rick Scott, a candidate for Senate, announced against Broward County’s election supervisor earlier in the evening.
“Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!” Trump wrote on Twitter late Thursday.
[More: Recount could save Andrew Gillum’s campaign for Florida governor]
Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018
Nearly two days after the polls closed, one county was still having major problems with counting ballots: Broward, a Democratic stronghold that played a pivotal role in the 2000 presidential election Florida recount.
Just 17,429 out of 8,165,741 votes cast in the Senate race separate Scott, who is leading, from Sen. Bill Nelson, the Democratic incumbent. In the governor’s race, Ron DeSantis, a former GOP congressman, leads Andrew Gillum, the Democrat, by 38,600 votes out of 8,200,905 votes cast.
Of the Broward County ballots counted, more than 24,700 voted for a gubernatorial candidate but no candidate for U.S. Senate — a fact seized on by Democrats as an indication that large numbers of votes for Nelson could be missing.
Scott and the National Republican Senatorial Committee are suing Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes for not releasing ballot-counting information.
