Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday he’ll play no role in certifying the still-unofficial results of the Nov. 6 election for U.S. Senate and called his opponent Bill Nelson “confused” on the process.
Scott, a Republican, is leading Nelson, a Democrat, by about 12,500 votes in the U.S. Senate election that is now undergoing a machine recount.
Nelson, the incumbent who has held the seat since 2000, has called on Scott to recuse himself from playing any role in the recount as governor.
“I recused myself from certifying results on the Elections Canvassing Commission in 2014, and I will do so again this year,” Scott said on Twitter. “This is nothing new. Bill Nelson is confused and doesn’t even know how Florida works — I have no role in supervising/ overseeing the ongoing recount process.”
Elections are supervised at the county level. Nelson has criticized Scott for directing Florida law enforcement to investigate possible election fraud in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, where ballots have turned up after the election and election officials have resisted access to records and ballot counting.
The machine recount deadline is Thursday. Nelson’s legal team is suing to extend that deadline and to count thousands of ballots tossed out due to mismatching signatures.
