FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- President Donald Trump sought to intervene in Florida's legally mandated vote recount Tuesday, calling on the state's Democratic senator to admit defeat and again implying without evidence that officials in two pivotal counties are trying to steal the election.
"When will Bill Nelson concede in Florida?" Trump said in a morning tweet. "The characters running Broward and Palm Beach voting will not be able to 'find' enough votes, too much spotlight on them now!"
There have been bumps as Florida undergoes recounts for both the governor and Senate races. Palm Beach County said it won't finish its recount by the Thursday deadline. In oft-criticized Broward County, additional sheriff's deputies were sent to guard ballots and voting machines, a compromise aimed at alleviating concerns. Those counties are both Democratic strongholds.
Still, the state elections department and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which are run by Republican appointees, have said they have seen no evidence of voter fraud. A Broward County judge challenged anyone who has evidence of fraud to file a report.
Meanwhile, a flurry of legal action continued. Nelson and a Democratic campaign committee filed two more lawsuits on Tuesday, including one that asks a federal judge to set aside looming deadlines for a machine recount as well as a hand recount, if it is ordered.
Trump aggressively campaigned in the state in the waning days of the election and put his finger on the scales of the Republican gubernatorial primary this summer by endorsing former Rep. Ron DeSantis.
White House spokesman Mercedes Schlapp said Tuesday the president "obviously has his opinion" on the recount.
"It's been incredibly frustrating to watch," she said.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said Trump is attempting to bully Florida election officials out of doing their jobs. Schumer and Nelson, both Democrats, spoke with reporters Tuesday in Washington.
"It's just plain wrong. It's un-American." Schumer said. "If he really wants an honest and fair election, President Trump will stop bullying, harassing and lying about the vote in Florida, and let the election proceed without the heavy hand of the president tipping the scale of justice."
Schumer said election officials should have all the time they need to count every vote, rather than Sunday's deadline.
Still, there's not much choice but for Florida to go through the process. State law requires a machine recount in races where the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. In the Senate race, Republican Rick Scott's lead over Nelson was 0.14 percentage points. In the governor's contest, unofficial results showed DeSantis ahead of Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by 0.41 percentage points.
Once the recount is complete, if the differences in any of the races are 0.25 percentage points or less, a hand recount will be ordered, meaning it could take even longer to complete the review of the Senate race if the difference remains narrow.
Broward Chief Circuit Judge Jack Tuter held an emergency hearing Monday on a request by Scott's lawyers that deputies be put in charge of ballots and voting machines that aren't being used until the recount is over.
An attorney for Broward Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes described layers of security including keycard and password access to rooms where ballots are kept, secured by deputies and monitored by security cameras and representatives of both campaigns and parties.
Scott's lawyers had alleged in court documents that Snipes was engaging in "suspect and unlawful vote counting practices" that violate state law and that she might "destroy evidence of any errors, accidents or unlawful conduct."
The judge said he could see no evidence of any violations, and said "I am urging because of the highly public nature of this case to ramp down the rhetoric."
"If someone in this lawsuit or someone in this county has evidence of voter fraud or irregularities at the supervisor's office, they should report it to their local law enforcement officer," Tuter said.
Information for this article was contributed by Tamara Lush, Brendan Farrington, Alan Fram, Darlene Superville, Gary Fineout, Mike Schneider and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/14/2018