Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign believes a judge is on the verge of ruling against Sen. Bill Nelson’s request to count all the ballots that fail the state’s signature test, which will likely boost Scott’s effort to win Nelson’s Senate seat.
Nelson has requested that all of these ballots be counted as part of his push to hold onto his seat. But a top aide to Scott’s Senate campaign said it won’t happen.
Chris Hartline, Scott’s campaign communication director, said U.S. District Judge Mark Walker “said he wouldn’t order all signature mismatch ballots counted,” and “brushed aside as ludicrous” Nelson’s request to count them all.
2. Leon County SOE testified that they were very liberal in how they matched signatures (even saying they’d count it as a match if they could match certain individual swoops) and that the ballots they threw out could not been seen as a match BY ANY REASONABLE PERSON.
— Chris Hartline (@ChrisHartline) November 15, 2018
The matter was discussed in a five-hour hearing Wednesday.
Walker did not rule yet on the request by Nelson, a Democrat who has held the Senate seat since 2000, and could still require some modification to the law.
Hartline later told the Washington Examiner that even though Walker has not ruled officially on the signature match request by Nelson, “he made clear during the hearing that he was not going to order that all 5,000 signature mismatch ballots be counted, which is what the Nelson camp asked for.”
Nelson trails Scott in the still-undecided election by about 12,500 votes. A statewide machine recount of the 8.2 million ballots cast is due to finish Thursday.
Nelson’s team wants counted the provisional and mail-in ballots that were tossed for having a signatures that do not match voter registration signatures on file.
Walker, according to a tweet from Hartline, “was not pleased with the series of lawsuits Nelson and liberal DC groups have filed that ask him to rewrite the entire FL election code AFTER the election.”
3. Judge was not pleased with the series of lawsuits Nelson and liberal DC groups have filed that ask him to rewrite the entire FL election code AFTER the election. Even if he makes a limited ruling in their favor on this case, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the suits.
— Chris Hartline (@ChrisHartline) November 15, 2018
In addition to seeking an end to the signature match requirement, Nelson is suing to extend the mail-in ballot deadline for non-overseas ballots. Those ballots were due by 7 p.m. on election night, which was Nov. 6. But Nelson and his legal team believe the deadline should match the overseas 10-day grace period.
They also want to eliminate the November deadlines for recounting the ballots.
Walker heard testimony from Leon County Elections Supervisor Mark Earley, who told the court he used a liberal interpretation of a signature match and tossed out only those ballots where the signature would be impossible to view as matching.
Nelsons said the mismatched signatures should be counted because election officials are not trained in how to judge matching signatures and could be tossing out valid ballots.
