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Florida Recount Update: As Race Continues To Narrow, Andrew Gillum Blasts Unsubstantiated Fraud Claims

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 03:03 PST, Nov 9, 2018

The Florida governor’s race continues to narrow and heads toward a recount; Democrat Andrew Gillum is firing back against unsubstantiated claims that there is election fraud meant to steal the race for Democrats.

At the end of election night, it appeared as if Republican Ron DeSantis was headed to victory and Gillum conceded the race. But as votes continued to trickle in the margin grew slimmer and is now within the mandated range for a recount to take place, and Gillum has vowed to press on until all the votes are counted. That has led to allegations from some top Republicans to lash out and Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican whose own Senate race is also headed to a recount, filed a lawsuit against Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes.

As the Hill noted, Andrew Gillum is firing back, saying that there is nothing partisan about counting all the votes.

“Mr. @FLGovScott — counting votes isn’t partisan — it’s democracy,” Gillum tweeted. “Count every vote.”

As CBS Miami reported, the Florida governor’s race was still within the range of a recount as votes were being added on Friday morning. A mid-morning update from the state’s Division of Elections website showed that DeSantis had a lead of 36,211 votes, putting him ahead by a margin of 49.61 percent to 49.17 percent. That was a difference of 0.44 percentage points, which would still have the race headed for a recount.

Two other statewide races — the Senate and agriculture commissioner races — were also within narrow margins and headed for a recount.

As the margin narrowed and Andrew Gillum appeared to have a potential path to victory, Republicans in the state have gone on the attack. Rick Scott made an unsubstantiated claim that “unethical liberals” were trying to “steal the election.” As News4Jax reported, Scott claimed that there was a “lack of transparency,” but did not say exactly how.

“Every Floridian should be concerned there may be rampant fraud happening in Palm Beach and Broward counties,” Scott said.

Senator Marco Rubio joined in via Twitter, making his own claim that “democrat lawyers are descending on Florida” with an intent to change the results of the election. But like Scott, Rubio did not offer evidence to back his claim.

The latest update shows that the Florida governor’s race likely won’t be decided anytime soon, as the recount process could take weeks depending on any legal actions taken either by Ron DeSantis or Andrew Gillum.

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