<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nasa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a> appointed a new director of UAP research, a position meant to oversee studies into <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ufo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UFOs</a>. Although NASA refused to identify the person upon making the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-shares-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-independent-study-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a> on Thursday, hours later — after being confronted about a lack of transparency — the agency changed course and released a name.
Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, shared the plans for a new top UFO investigator upon the release of an independent study team&#8217;s <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/science-pink/s3fs-public/atoms/files/UAP%20Independent%20Study%20Team%20-%20Final%20Report_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) based on unclassified data that offered no evidence of extraterrestrial life but did call for more investigation into objects they could not explain and beyond.
“NASA’s new Director of UAP Research will develop and oversee the implementation of NASA’s scientific vision for UAP research, including using NASA’s expertise to work with other agencies to analyze UAP and applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to search the skies for anomalies,&#8221; Nelson said. &#8220;NASA will do this work transparently for the benefit of humanity.&#8221;
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Here&#39;s the complete NASA press conference on the &quot;Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Report.&quot;
A few of my text alerts bled onto the audio towards the end. Sorry about that. They were from Kirkpatrick. 😀<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ufos?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ufos</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ufoX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ufoX</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/uapX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#uapX</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ufotwitter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ufotwitter</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/aliens?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#aliens</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/uap?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#uap</a> <a href="https://t.co/3UDMhos7AA">pic.twitter.com/3UDMhos7AA</a>
&mdash; Joe Murgia (@TheUfoJoe) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheUfoJoe/status/1702403029566374191?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2023</a></blockquote>
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NASA later released an updated press release that <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/update-nasa-shares-uap-independent-study-report-names-director">said</a> Mark McInerney had been appointed director of UAP research.
&#8220;McInerney previously served as NASA’s liaison to the Department of Defense covering limited UAP activities for the agency. In the director role, he will centralize communications, resources, and data analytical capabilities to establish a robust database for the evaluation of future UAP,&#8221; the news release said. &#8220;He also will leverage NASA’s expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and space-based observation tools to support and enhance the broader government initiative on UAP. Since 1996, he has served various positions at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and the National Hurricane Center.&#8221;
Earlier in the day, despite a stated commitment for transparency, NASA officials initially resisted disclosure of whom the agency had chosen to lead its UFO endeavor when pressed during a news conference to discuss the independent study&#8217;s findings and NASA&#8217;s plans for disclosure by filmmaker <a href="https://twitter.com/Unexplained2020/status/1702355706249125964" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Fox</a> and reporters. The decision to keep the name under wraps stood in contrast to how the Department of Defense handled the announcement of its UAP office last year, <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3100053/dod-announces-the-establishment-of-the-all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">naming</a> Sean Kirkpatrick as the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
NASA Associate Administrator Nicola Fox <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQcqOW39ksk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conceded</a> that her agency had already appointed someone to the role some time ago, but declined to name the individual, saying, &#8220;We will not give his name out now.&#8221; Dan Evans, NASA’s assistant deputy associate administrator for research, said harassment and even threats directed at members of the research group were &#8220;beyond the pale&#8221; and factored into the agency&#8217;s decision not to announce the new director&#8217;s name.
NewsNation&#8217;s Joe Khalil asked the panel whether their decision to withhold the identity of the lead UAP investigator would be permanent and noted that &#8220;it seems to cut against the dedication to being open and transparent&#8221; to keep the name secret.
&#8220;At the time, yes, we are withholding that name. Let&#8217;s not forget that we&#8217;ve only just received this report,&#8221; Evan replied. &#8220;And what we need to do now as an agency is come together and provide a cohesive and coherent response to it that addresses multiple findings and recommendations, okay? We&#8217;re only announcing initial actions today. Will that person&#8217;s name be disclosed, as to your specific question? Potentially, yes. But again, we need to ensure that the scientific process and method is free. Okay? That&#8217;s my response.&#8221;

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson

NASA Reveals UAP Director After Transparency Standoff

Bill Nelson

NASA

Science

U.S.

After a brutal race for the Florida Governor&#8217;s mansion with an additional recount after election day, Democrat candidate Andrew Gillum officially conceded the race to Republican Ron DeSantis. But one may wonder how DeSantis managed to pull it off, considering that Gillum <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/governor/fl/florida_governor_desantis_vs_gillum-6518.html#polls">led</a> in most pre-election surveys, many by decent margins.
Despite the apparent pre-election lead for Gillum, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/exit-polls/florida">polls</a> and <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article221439990.html">analysis</a> of the 2018 election show that Hispanic voters likely helped DeSantis clinch his victory over Gillum. The findings seem to confirm that Democrat attacks against DeSantis, accusing him of being <a href="https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/06/historic-florida-governor-election-mired-name-calling-racist-accusations-andrew-gillum-ron-desantis/1897717002/">a racist</a>, failed to galvanize Florida Hispanics.
According to an exit poll released by CNN, DeSantis earned 44% of the state&#8217;s Hispanic vote compared to 54% for Gillum. This 10-point margin was a 17-point improvement for the GOP, compared to 2016, when President Donald Trump lost Hispanic voters by 27 points, 35% to 62%, to Hillary Clinton. It was also a gain for Republicans compared to the last midterm election when Governor Rick Scott <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/2014/FL/governor/exitpoll">lost</a> Hispanics by 20 points in his re-election bid.
How did Republicans make inroads with Hispanics in Florida despite warnings from left-wing activists and the media that President Trump would alienate the rapidly growing demographic?
An analysis shared with the <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article221439990.html">Miami Herald</a> shows that DeSantis likely won 66% of the state&#8217;s Cuban American voters. The study looked at election results in 35 predominantly Cuban precincts in the suburbs of Miami-Dade County and found that the Republican gubernatorial nominee won twice the number of voters as his Democrat opponent, 66% to 33%. As the Herald notes, DeSantis&#8217; 33-point advantage among Cuban Americans was consistent with a Telemundo/Mason Dixon <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000166-cb4c-d7ac-abfe-ebcf677c0000">poll</a> published days before the election that showed him with a similar lead over Gillum.
In an interview with The Daily Wire, the study&#8217;s author, Giancarlo Sopo, a Miami-based communication strategist, who himself is an American of Cuban heritage, noted the important role that Hispanic voters played in DeSantis&#8217; success.
&#8220;DeSantis&#8217; win was the result of three factors,&#8221; said Sopo. &#8220;First, he maintained GOP strongholds in rural and exurban counties, and in doing so, won 60% of Florida&#8217;s white voters. Second, it appears that turnout among Hispanic Democrats was low this year, which is evidenced by the state&#8217;s three majority-Hispanic counties &#8212; Miami-Dade, Hendry, and Osceola &#8212; having had some of the lowest turnout levels in all of Florida. Last, but not least: the Cuban vote. Had DeSantis merely replicated Trump&#8217;s margins among Cuban American voters, we&#8217;d be talking about Governor-elect Gillum right now.&#8221;
While Republicans typically perform better with Cubans than other Hispanics, Pew Research noted in 2014 that this constituency had been <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/24/after-decades-of-gop-support-cubans-shifting-toward-the-democratic-party/">trending toward</a> the Democrat Party in recent elections. About <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/15/unlike-other-latinos-about-half-of-cuban-voters-in-florida-backed-trump/">half</a> of Cuban voters backed Trump in 2016, compared to over 80% going for George W. Bush in 2000. Sopo estimates that by building upon Trump&#8217;s share of the Cuban vote, DeSantis added approximately 79,000 votes to his statewide victory margin, which currently stands at just 33,000 votes.
Census figures show that Cuban Americans account for 6.5% of Florida&#8217;s population and are estimated to be approximately 6% of the state&#8217;s voters. With fewer young voters &#8212; who tend to be more liberal &#8212; showing up to vote, the Cuban American vote, and by extension the Hispanic electorate, performed more Republican than it has recently. This is confirmed by a November 2 Miami New Times article that <a href="https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/floridas-young-people-are-not-voting-as-expected-and-democrats-trail-in-early-voting-10877329">noted</a> young voters in Florida were voting in lower numbers relative to their share of the electorate.
&#8220;According to an analysis by University of Florida political scientist Daniel A. Smith, voters between the ages of 18 and 29 have cast just 6 percent of the ballots to date, despite making up 17 percent of the state&#8217;s electorate.&#8221;
Lagging turnout among non-Cuban Hispanics, who typically vote Democrat, may have also hurt Gillum. Despite comprising 16.4% of Florida&#8217;s registered voters, Hispanics were just <a href="http://steveschale.com/blog/2018/11/6/like-the-jaguars-season-the-election-is-nearly-over.html">13% of the electorate</a> this year during early and absentee voting, according to an Election Day memo by veteran political strategist Steve Schale.
Florida Democrats voiced concerns about their standing with the state&#8217;s Hispanic voters throughout the election. An August 2018 Politico story <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/08/14/nelsons-narrow-lead-with-florida-latinos-worries-democrats-556698">noted</a> that at least one statewide Democrat, Senator Bill Nelson, was only winning by seven percentage points among Puerto Ricans, a demographic group that tends to lean left.
It is also possible that Gillum, who campaigned with Senator Bernie Sanders during the primary, may have been too extreme for Florida voters. Forty-six percent of them told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/exit-polls/florida">pollsters</a> that Gillum&#8217;s policies were &#8220;too liberal.&#8221;
&#8220;The message that Gillum is a socialist worked,&#8221; <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article221439990.html">said</a> Florida International University political analyst Eduardo Gamarra to El Nuevo Herald. In a state with large numbers of Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants who fled leftist dictatorships, it&#8217;s easy to see why Florida voters, including many Hispanics, were turned-off by a gubernatorial candidate who <a href="http://floridapolitics.com/archives/271410-andrew-gillum-questions-about-being-a-democratic-socialist-are-fair-game">refused</a> to clarify whether he was a socialist throughout the primary.
Gillum even accepted an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Ocasio2018/posts/congratulations-andrew-gillumthe-progressive-movement-is-transforming-the-countr/1825557417534934/">endorsement</a> from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswomen-elect in New York and member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a radical Marxist group that <a href="https://www.dsausa.org/statements/sanctions_against_venezuela/">supports</a> the Venezuelan government and has called for nationalizing industries and <a href="https://radio.foxnews.com/2018/08/09/democratic-socialists-eliminate-private-ownership-and-nationalize-healthcare/">eliminating</a> private ownership of property in the United States.
&#8220;Interestingly, Democrats have had a harder time winning in Florida as the state&#8217;s Hispanic population is growing, which defies conventional political wisdom,&#8221; added Sopo, noting that the party&#8217;s shift to the left at a national level could be hurting it with the state&#8217;s Hispanic voters.
The politics of a national Democratic Party that is increasingly progressive may be incongruent with the nuances of Florida politics. For instance, in much of Latin America, the word &#8220;progresista&#8221; is often associated with the kinds of governments and political movements that many of the state&#8217;s Hispanic voters fled. When you combine a Hispanic voting bloc that is at least somewhat skeptical of progressivism with an electorate that is older, more rural, and leans conservative in midterm elections, it&#8217;s no surprise that Republicans have dominated the state for 20 years.
DeSantis&#8217; victory in Florida may provide Republican candidates across the country with a blueprint for how to reach Hispanics: Run as a conservative, emphasize sound economic principles and remind them that the progressive Left supports the kinds of policies that caused them and their families to leave their countries and come to America.
Not only did DeSantis not have to compromise his conservative values to make inroads with Hispanics, he ran with a Hispanic running-mate, Representative Jeannette Nuñez, who championed them. In doing so, Nuñez became the first Latina ever elected as Lieutenant Governor in Florida and undoubtedly helped energize Hispanics for the GOP on the campaign trail.
Conservatives should also remember that just because someone happens to be Hispanic, that doesn&#8217;t mean they <a href="http://www.fairus.org/press-releases/exit-polling-data-refutes-claims-hispanic-voters-punish-candidates-who-support">support</a> the Left&#8217;s vision of open borders or cultural Marxism. In fact, just like other ethnic groups, Hispanics are attracted to the American dream of liberty and opportunity, and that clearly showed here.
The sooner Republicans learn that they can&#8217;t play the Left&#8217;s game and balkanize the population for their own ends, the better. The Left panders and will always pander better than the Right. So why not just run on the American values you stand for?

How The Republicans Won Florida

Andrew Gillum

Florida

Rick Scott

Ron DeSantis

Florida Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott has defeated Democratic Senator Bill Nelson after a manual recount put Scott ahead by approximately 10,000 votes.
&#8220;Barring any further legal challenges from the Nelson campaign, the outgoing governor will become Florida&#8217;s junior senator in January, joining fellow Republican Marco Rubio in the Senate,&#8221; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/18/florida-recount-sunday-update-rick-scott-bill-nelson/2048541002/">USA Today</a> reported on Sunday. &#8220;It will be the first time since Reconstruction that the state has had two GOP senators.&#8221;
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And the press release just came.
Gov. Rick Scott will be Florida&#8217;s next US Senator and is a certified Democratic giant-killer, beating these 3 in a row when many Democrats said he couldn&#8217;t
1) Alex Sink in 2010
2) former Gov Charlie Crist in 2014
3) Sen Bill Nelson in 2018 <a href="https://t.co/WhLNTSKKxf">pic.twitter.com/WhLNTSKKxf</a>
&#8212; Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcACaputo/status/1064235311444762624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Scott announced that Nelson conceded the race, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/18/politics/bill-nelson-rick-scott-florida-recount-result/index.html">saying</a> in a statement: &#8220;I just spoke with Senator Bill Nelson, who graciously conceded, and I thanked him for his years of public service.&#8221;
The results of the manual recount put Scott ahead by 10,033 votes over Nelson, who had served for three terms as a U.S. senator.
USA Today noted that this &#8220;will be the first time since Reconstruction that the state has had two GOP senators.&#8221;

This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.

Rick Scott Defeats Bill Nelson In Florida Senate Race After Manual Recount

Democrat Andrew Gillum conceded the Florida gubernatorial race &#8220;for a second and final time&#8221; Saturday night, <a href="https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2018/11/17/andrew-gillum-concedes-florida-governors-race-second-time/2041301002/">Tallahassee.com reports</a>, signaling the end of an extended recount.
Gillum and fellow Democrat, Bill Nelson, who is running for his own long-held Senate seat against Florida&#8217;s current Republican governor Rick Scott, have been in election limbo for more than a week as Florida first proceeded to an electronic recount in both races, and then to a hand recount.
After results were finally certified Saturday, both Scott and DeSantis were clear winners, but so far only Gillum has admitted there&#8217;s no way he can prevail over his Republican opponent.
Gillum conceded in a video posted to social media, thanking supporters and acknowledging DeSantis as the state&#8217;s next governor.
&#8220;R. Jai [Gillum&#8217;s wife] and I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Mr. DeSantis on becoming the next governor of the great state of Florida,&#8221; Gillum said.
&#8220;We also want you to know that even though this election may be beyond us, that this &#8211; although nobody wanted to be governor more than me &#8211; this was not just about an election cycle,&#8221; he added. &#8220;This was about creating the kind of change in this state that really allows for the voices of everyday people to show up again in our government, our state, and our communities.&#8221;
DeSantis responded, &#8220;This was a hard-fought campaign. Now it&#8217;s time to bring Florida together.&#8221;
Tallahasse.com reports that more than 8 million ballots were recounted in the gubernatorial race statewide, but that Gillum&#8217;s deficit was simply insurmountable. DeSantis won 4,075,445 to 4,041,762.
All eyes, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/18/politics/florida-recount-comes-to-an-end/index.html">CNN reports</a>, are now on Bill Nelson, who still has not acquiesced in his recount efforts. Nelson&#8217;s and Scott&#8217;s race went to a machine recount a week ago, at the same time Gillum&#8217;s and DeSantis&#8217; did, and even though Scott picked up votes in the machine recount, bringing his lead to more than 12,000 ballots, the race still fell within the margin of error necessary to conduct a hand recount.
Results from the hand recount are expected to be certified on Sunday, no later than noon EST. CNN predicts that &#8220;[f]acing an insurmountable vote gap with Scott, Sunday&#8217;s deadline will bring an end to Nelson&#8217;s bid, barring further legal maneuvering.&#8221;
A Democratic strategist close to the operation <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/11/16/nelson-has-no-path-democrats-admit-scott-beats-florida-icon-702880">told Politico Sunday</a> that Nelson has &#8220;no path forward&#8221;: &#8220;It&#8217;s done. But it was done before today. This was a total Hail Mary.&#8221;
Nelson&#8217;s loss should have been clear by now, but Florida&#8217;s Broward County &#8212; now notorious for a string of election recount disasters this week &#8212; <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-broward-manual-recount-agriculture-commissioner-20181117-story.html">&#8220;lost&#8221; more than 2,000 ballots</a> &#8220;somewhere in the building&#8221; on Saturday.
&#8220;Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes said they either misplaced, misfiled or mixed in with another stack,&#8221; the Broward County&#8217;s Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported. At 8 p.m. Saturday night, Broward gave up the search and resumed the hand recount Sunday morning.

Andrew Gillum Concedes AGAIN As Florida Recount Draws To A Close But Bill Nelson Has Yet To Admit Defeat

Democratic Party

According to reports from Broward County, after election officials failed to submit the results of the machine recount in time &#8212; which showed Republicans&#8217; vote margins <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38443/broward-county-completes-recount-showing-james-barrett">increasing</a> &#8212; thus nullifying them, they managed to get through the hand recount much more quickly than Democrats hoped they would.
Mother Jones&#8217; <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/in-critical-broward-county-hopes-for-bill-nelson-fade-as-hand-recount-begins/">Pema Levy</a>, who has been tracking the developments in Broward and Palm Beach, reported Friday that the hand recount had already wrapped up, and incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson &#8220;didn&#8217;t come close&#8221; to making up the votes he needed to try to catch up with Republican Rick Scott.
&#8220;The hand recount in Broward is over for the Senate race,&#8221; Levy tweeted. &#8220;It was a blur it went so fast. Looks like Nelson didn&#8217;t come close to making up the ground he needs.&#8221;
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The hand recount in Broward is over for the Senate race. It was a blur it went so fast. Looks like Nelson didn&#8217;t come close to making up the ground he needs. <a href="https://t.co/JNYAGpmSNk">https://t.co/JNYAGpmSNk</a>
&#8212; Pema Levy (@pemalevy) <a href="https://twitter.com/pemalevy/status/1063452048384016384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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In a piece for <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/in-critical-broward-county-hopes-for-bill-nelson-fade-as-hand-recount-begins/">Mother Jones</a>, Levy gave some more details on Nelson&#8217;s rapidly fading hopes of winning re-election in what had quickly become apparent was going to be a &#8220;bad day&#8221; for Democrats. &#8220;As the hand recount in Florida&#8217;s contentious Senate election got underway in Broward County, it quickly became clear that Democrats were headed for a bad day,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;This is the county where incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson needed to net thousands of new votes on Friday. But minutes into the recount, that became unlikely.&#8221;
Heading into the recounts, Republican Rick Scott led Nelson by 12,536 votes. Nelson&#8217;s hopes of defying historical precedent and making up all those votes rested in the Democrat strongholds of Broward County and Palm Beach County. In Broward, tens of thousands of ballots contained no votes in the Senate race, which Democrats were hoping a hand recount would find to have been incorrectly read by the machines and would heavily favor Democrats.
But when officials burned through the ballots quickly Friday morning, it became clear that what Republicans had been saying all along was the case: People had simply failed to vote on that race for whatever reason.
If anyone&#8217;s to blame, as Levy notes, &#8220;It&#8217;s likely ballot design that put a significant dent in Nelson&#8217;s vote totals here in Broward County, and may have cost him the race.&#8221; Many have noted that the Senate race was listed right underneath the instructions for the ballot, and some voters probably just didn&#8217;t see it, and didn&#8217;t notice that they hadn&#8217;t voted on the big Senate race to go back and double-check. And who was in charge of that ballot design? Democrat elections supervisor Brenda Snipes&#8217; office.
Another possible reason for the Senate no vote is simply that some Democrat voters, while enthused about voting for Andrew Gillum &#8212; who trails Republican Ron DeSenatis by an even larger margin (over 33,000 votes) &#8212; were not exciting about making sure Nelson got to keep his seat for six more years.
As for the hand recount in Palm Beach, Levy reports that a similar situation might play out. &#8220;Word here is they have about 5k ballots to check and that it will take less than 2 hours,&#8221; she <a href="https://twitter.com/pemalevy/status/1063479510212009986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1063479510212009986&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2F38445%2Fbroward-county-hand-recount-wraps-more-quickly-james-barrett">tweeted</a> just after noon.
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38429/rubio-no-evidence-election-fraud-look-what-we-just-james-barrett">Rubio: No Evidence Of Election Fraud? Look What We Just Learned Democrats Did In Florida</a>

Broward County Hand Recount Wraps Up More Quickly Than Expected, And It’s ‘Bad News’ For Democrats

Oops.
Despite completing the machine recount in time, the office of embattled Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes missed the deadline for submitting its new results by just a few minutes Thursday, which happened to give both Republican candidates Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis even larger vote margins over their Democratic opponents.
&#8220;With just 15 minutes to go before Thursday&#8217;s deadline, Broward County finally finished recounting every vote,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article221709445.html">Miami Herald</a> reports. &#8220;At least, that&#8217;s what officials told reporters and the canvassing board at 2:45 p.m. In a surprise announcement at nearly 6 p.m., Broward&#8217;s director of elections planning, Joseph D&#8217;Alessandro, told the canvassing board the county actually turned in results to the state two minutes late. They won&#8217;t count officially.&#8221;
&#8220;Basically I just worked my ass off for nothing,&#8221; D&#8217;Alessandro said. &#8220;What caused it was my unfamiliarity with their website.&#8221;
Since the office failed to submit them in time, the original results will stand.
So what did those now nullified machine recounts find? Democrats lost about 1,300 ballots, while Republicans lost about 600. In other words, the recount benefited both Republicans. In the case of Scott&#8217;s contest against Bill Nelson, Scott came out 779 votes ahead in comparison to the initial count.
They found a discrepancy of 2,040 votes due to &#8220;a commingling of ballots,&#8221; said D&#8217;Alessandro, who admitted, &#8220;We did not correctly handle the ballots.&#8221;
So, despite having actually completed them with 15 minutes to spare, Snipes&#8217; team says they weren&#8217;t able to properly submit them, wiping out all of that work they had just done &#8212; and the Republicans&#8217; gains. As the Herald notes, that suspicious sequence of events prompted Scott senior campaign advisor Brad Todd to suggest to MSNBC that the &#8220;error&#8221; was maybe not an error at all.
The manual recount in Broward has reportedly also wrapped up, and much more quickly than the Democrats hoped it would. Mother Jones&#8217; Pema Levy has been on the scene tracking the developments and has some bad news for Democrats.
&#8220;The hand recount in Broward is over for the Senate race,&#8221; she reported Friday. &#8220;It was a blur it went so fast. Looks like Nelson didn&#8217;t come close to making up the ground he needs.&#8221;
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The hand recount in Broward is over for the Senate race. It was a blur it went so fast. Looks like Nelson didn&#8217;t come close to making up the ground he needs. <a href="https://t.co/JNYAGpmSNk">https://t.co/JNYAGpmSNk</a>
&#8212; Pema Levy (@pemalevy) <a href="https://twitter.com/pemalevy/status/1063452048384016384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The recount in Palm Beach County isn&#8217;t expected to take too long, either, which also isn&#8217;t a good sign for Democrats:
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Hello from Palm Beach County, where the hand recount is just getting underway. Word here is they have about 5k ballots to check and that it will take less than 2 hours. <a href="https://t.co/KCUDGcwvHC">pic.twitter.com/KCUDGcwvHC</a>
&#8212; Pema Levy (@pemalevy) <a href="https://twitter.com/pemalevy/status/1063479510212009986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Heading into the recount, DeSantis and Scott led the races for governor and U.S. Senate by counts of <a href="https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/florida/">33,669 and 12,536</a>, respectively. According to the 26 elections that have experienced a recount in recent history, the chances of either result being overturned was effectively zero. Only three of those 26 recounts resulted in a reversal of who won the election, but the average vote margin change was just <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38280/what-are-chances-recounts-will-swing-florida-james-barrett">311 votes</a>.
According to FairVote, between 2000 and 2016, 26 of the 4,687 statewide elections went to a recount, and the outcomes of only three reversed. &#8220;The 2004 Washington governor&#8217;s race, the 2006 Vermont state auditor&#8217;s race and the 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate race,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article221506705.html">Miami Herald</a> reports. &#8220;The average swing in those three elections after the recounts? About 311 votes.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38429/rubio-no-evidence-election-fraud-look-what-we-just-james-barrett">Rubio: No Evidence Of Election Fraud? Look What We Just Learned Democrats Did In Florida</a>

Broward County Completes Recount Showing Republicans Gaining Votes, Then Fails to Submit Them In Time, Nullifying Recount

With the machine recounts finished &#8212; reportedly resulting in a <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-ne-florida-vote-recount-deadline-20181115-story.html">net gain</a> for Republican Rick Scott of 41 votes, putting him ahead of Bill Nelson by 12,603 votes, and a one-vote gain for Democrat Andrew Gillum, which leaves him still trailing Ron DeSantis by 33,683 votes &#8212; and the hand recounts underway, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio sounded the alarm over potential voter fraud by Democrat officials.
&#8220;No evidence of fraud in #FloridaElection?&#8221; wrote Rubio in a post Thursday. &#8220;Dems got voters to use altered forms to fix &amp; submit as many mail ballots as possible after FL deadline in hopes that a judge would later order state to count them. Today that&#8217;s exactly what a federal judge did.&#8221;
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No evidence of fraud in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FloridaElection?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FloridaElection</a>?
Dems got voters to use altered forms to fix &amp; submit as many mail ballots as possible after FL deadline in hopes that a judge would later order state to count them.
Today that&#8217;s exactly what a federal judge did. <a href="https://t.co/MC4Tlvy9gi">https://t.co/MC4Tlvy9gi</a>
&#8212; Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) <a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1063171854997831683?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Rubio linked to a story by the <a href="https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/15/florida-recount-democrats-launch-plan-altered-state-form-fix-ballots/2009178002/">Naples Daily News</a>, which detailed an effort by Democrats to swing the election outcome by giving Democrat voters altered absentee ballots with the hopes of getting a judge to admit them. &#8220;A day after Florida&#8217;s election left top state races too close to call, a Democratic party leader directed staffers and volunteers to share altered election forms with voters to fix signature problems on absentee ballots after the state&#8217;s deadline,&#8221; the outlet reports.
The forms were discovered in Broward, Santa Rosa, Citrus and Okaloosa counties and reported to federal prosecutors for review for possible election fraud. USA Today obtained an email that &#8220;shows that Florida Democrats were organizing a broader statewide effort beyond those counties to give voters the altered forms to fix improper absentee ballots after the Nov. 5 deadline. Democratic party leaders provided staffers with copies of a form, known as a &#8216;<a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5130053-Altered-form-Affidavit-vote-by-mail-ballot-cure.html">cure affidavit</a>,&#8217; that had been modified to include an inaccurate Nov. 8 deadline.&#8221;
A Democratic activist in Palm Beach admitted that the goal was to have voters submit as many of these altered absentee ballots as possible after the election deadline with the hope of a judge admitting them. The Naples Daily News provides more details:
<blockquote>
An email that Jennifer Kim, Florida Democratic Party&#8217;s central deputy field director, sent Nov. 7 to party workers instructing them how to give voters an altered form to fix signature problems with their absentee ballots after the state deadline. Kim&#8217;s email shows this is a statewide effort to give voters the altered form with the wrong deadline to return it. The altered forms have turned up in several counties and have been turned over to federal prosecutors to review for possible election fraud.
U.S. Chief Judge Mark Walker ruled Thursday that voters should have until Saturday to correct signatures on ballots, a move that could open the door for these ballots returned with altered forms to be counted. Republicans supporting Gov. Rick Scott, who leads U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson by less than 13,000 votes in the recount, appealed the ruling.
</blockquote>
Rubio has been calling attention to the sketchy behavior of Broward and Palm Beach Counties for the last week, as more and more reports revealed questionable behavior by elections officials and a judge determined that both counties had violated Florida law in the counting process.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38162/rubio-heres-more-evidence-potential-voting-law-james-barrett">Rubio: Here&#8217;s More Evidence Of Potential Voting Law Violations In Broward County, FL</a>

Rubio: No Evidence Of Election Fraud? Look What We Just Learned Democrats Did In Florida

Marco Rubio

It&#8217;s looking more and more as if Republican Gov. &#8203;Rick Scott is on his way to victory in Florida over incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson; on Thursday, with the machine recount finished, the latest results of the recount in their race showed Scott <a href="http://floridapolitics.com/archives/281342-how-about-now-winning-first-recount-rick-scott-asks-again-for-bill-nelson-to-concede">gaining 865 votes</a> since last Sunday, according to Scott&#8217;s campaign.
That would swell Scott&#8217;s lead to 13,427 votes, and Scott went on Twitter to tell Nelson to admit he had lost.
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With the statewide machine recount finished, our margin of victory has increased by nearly 1000 votes. <a href="https://twitter.com/SenBillNelson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenBillNelson</a>, it&#8217;s time to admit this race is over.
&#8212; Rick Scott (@ScottforFlorida) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottforFlorida/status/1063165720442425346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Scott also released a statement:
<blockquote>
Last week, Florida voters elected me as their next U.S. Senator and now the ballots have been counted twice. I am incredibly proud and humbled by the opportunity to serve Florida in Washington. Our state needs to move forward. We need to put this election behind us, and it is time for Bill Nelson to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes &#8211; which will yield the same result, and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served.
</blockquote>
Nelson and his campaign had no comment. <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/15/rick-scott-declares-victory-after-florida-recount-/">The Washington Times</a> reported that Nelson sent out a fundraising email to supporters that read, &#8220;Has your signature changed over the years since you first registered to vote? Have a disability that affects your handwriting? Suffer from eyesight loss? Changed your last name? If you answered &#8216;yes&#8217; to any of the questions above, then you could be denied your right to vote and that&#8217;s why our legal challenge of this disenfranchisement law is so important.&#8221;
If the race between the two candidates results in a span of less than 0.25%, a manual recount will be executed, by dint of Florida state law. The 13,427 difference is below that margin.
Palm Beach County missed the 3 p.m. Thursday deadline for giving the results of its recount, which could return its results to pre-recount totals. As <a href="http://floridapolitics.com/archives/281294-palm-beach-recount-deadline">Florida Politics</a> reported, &#8220;Bucher&#8217;s office had been conducting the recount in the order the races appeared on the ballot. That is, they planned to complete the U.S. Senate recount first, followed by the Governor&#8217;s race, the Agriculture Commissioner contest, and then finishing with the HD 89 race. But the county failed to even complete the U.S. Senate recount by Thursday&#8217;s deadline.&#8221;
On Thursday, Nelson&#8217;s campaign <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election/florida-democrat-nelson-sues-state-to-force-hand-recount-of-ballots-idUSKCN1NK1ZH?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=topNews&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=twitter">sued Florida election officials</a> in order to force a hand recount in Palm Beach County. Nelson&#8217;s attorney, Marc Elias, stated, &#8220;We have sued Palm Beach County and the Florida Sec of State to require a hand count of all ballots in the county due to systematic machine failure during the machine recount.&#8221;
On Thursday, considering whether to extend the deadline in Palm Beach County, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/judge-calls-florida-laughing-stock-world-gives-voters-more-time-n936656?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma">ripped</a> Florida legislators and election officials, blasting that Florida is &#8220;the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this.&#8221;
Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak offered a witty comment on the ineptitude of Florida election officials:
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In order to save time, Florida election officials have announced that the 2020 recount will begin immediately.
&#8212; Pat Sajak (@patsajak) <a href="https://twitter.com/patsajak/status/1062749776419139586?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Rick Scott Reportedly Gaining Votes, Calls On Nelson To Give Up

While one of the two &#8220;Democrat stronghold&#8221; counties in Florida has managed to complete its machine recount ahead of the 3 p.m. deadline, some images and footage provided by a local outlet from the other problem-plagued county don&#8217;t encourage confidence that its going to get the job done.
Broward County managed to complete its recounts of some 700,000 votes overnight with several hours to spare before the big deadline Thursday. <a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Broward-Finishes-Machine-Recount-of-2018-Election-Votes-Ahead-of-Thursday-Deadline-500571281.html?fbclid=IwAR3dQgRduBWZbJ4RHuasnGtr8HPSU7n806s29zsHINemC4AlONUbKDtBzlM">NBC 6</a> reports:
<blockquote>
After days of being in the national spotlight &#8211; and being criticized by everyone from candidates to protesters from both major political parties &#8211; Broward County completed their machine recount of votes for three offices in the 2018 election ahead of Thursday&#8217;s deadline.
Workers put the last ballots to be counted through machines at election headquarters in Lauderhill around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday night. Officials will spend the remaining time before the 3 p.m. deadline Thursday going through ballots that were mailed in or not able to be read by the machines.
</blockquote>
Meanwhile, Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes finds herself the subject of two court hearings Thursday after a judge ruled that she had violated Florida law in her handling of the process.
While the notoriously problematic Broward County wrapped up the recount in time, CBS 12 provided reason to worry that the Democrat-heavy Palm Beach won&#8217;t be able to say the same.
&#8220;Less than 12 hours until the #Florida #recount deadline&#8230;. no machines running here at Palm Beach County tabulation center. Where is everyone!?&#8221; reported CBS 12&#8217;s Kara Duffy.
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Less than 12 hours until the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Florida?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Florida</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/recount?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#recount</a> deadline&#8230;. no machines running here at Palm Beach County tabulation center. Where is everyone!? <a href="https://t.co/pLn3rvVO0y">pic.twitter.com/pLn3rvVO0y</a>
&#8212; Kara Duffy (@KaraDuffyCBS12) <a href="https://twitter.com/KaraDuffyCBS12/status/1062994424987312130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Hours away from the #Florida #election #recount. Here at the Palm Beach County tabulation center&#8230; silence,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;Supervisor of Elections said: &#8216;We&#8217;re doing everything in our human power possible to make this happen.'&#8221;
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Hours away from the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Florida?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Florida</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/election?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#election</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/recount?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#recount</a>. Here at the Palm Beach County tabulation center&#8230; silence. Supervisor of Elections said: &#8220;We&#8217;re doing everything in our human power possible to make this happen.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/c0iicm9fl2">pic.twitter.com/c0iicm9fl2</a>
&#8212; Kara Duffy (@KaraDuffyCBS12) <a href="https://twitter.com/KaraDuffyCBS12/status/1063008491122626560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Hours away from the Florida #recount deadline&#8230; no workers in sight here at the Palm Beach County tabulation center? Where is everyone?&#8221; she reported later.
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Hours away from the Florida <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/recount?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#recount</a> deadline&#8230; no workers in sight here at the Palm Beach County tabulation center? Where is everyone? <a href="https://t.co/YKKB1GSFnc">pic.twitter.com/YKKB1GSFnc</a>
&#8212; Kara Duffy (@KaraDuffyCBS12) <a href="https://twitter.com/KaraDuffyCBS12/status/1063041775168831494?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Duffy was likewise on the scene Wednesday providing updates as the recount re-started, then stopped.
&#8220;RIGHT NOW: observers being seated at tabulation table. Looks like they&#8217;re gearing up to start recounting process at Palm Beach County center,&#8221; she tweeted. &#8220;Recount, redo! SOE says Palm Beach County #voting machines overheated (which explains the little/no activity yesterday) forcing another recount of about 175K early votes.&#8221;
&#8220;[M]achines back up &amp; running at #PalmBeachCounty tabulation center,&#8221; she posted later.
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RIGHT NOW: observers being seated at tabulation table. Looks like they&#8217;re gearing up to start recounting process at Palm Beach County center. <a href="https://t.co/vcyVCR3vLH">pic.twitter.com/vcyVCR3vLH</a>
&#8212; Kara Duffy (@KaraDuffyCBS12) <a href="https://twitter.com/KaraDuffyCBS12/status/1062359481647009799?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Recount, redo! SOE says Palm Beach County <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/voting?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#voting</a> machines overheated (which explains the little/no activity yesterday) forcing another recount of about 175K early votes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MidtermElections2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MidtermElections2018</a> <a href="https://t.co/hx9I3X9nlM">pic.twitter.com/hx9I3X9nlM</a>
&#8212; Kara Duffy (@KaraDuffyCBS12) <a href="https://twitter.com/KaraDuffyCBS12/status/1062640552062185472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
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RIGHT NOW: machines back up &amp; running at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PalmBeachCounty?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PalmBeachCounty</a> tabulation center. This after some machines overheated. Supervisor said they lost day and a half worth of work due to issue. Must now redo, recount for about 175K early <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/votes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#votes</a> <a href="https://t.co/VXPsUWFy3l">pic.twitter.com/VXPsUWFy3l</a>
&#8212; Kara Duffy (@KaraDuffyCBS12) <a href="https://twitter.com/KaraDuffyCBS12/status/1062642192274128898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
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But at some point that evening, the whole place shut down, leaving Duffy asking &#8220;Where is everyone!?&#8221;
As if the situation in Florida wasn&#8217;t messy enough, a Barack Obama-appointed Florida judge has just <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38380/more-waiting-florida-judge-extends-deadline-hank-berrien">extended</a> the deadline to Saturday at 5 p.m. for voters whose votes weren&#8217;t tabulated due to signature problems.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38280/what-are-chances-recounts-will-swing-florida-james-barrett">reported</a> earlier this week, historical precedent indicates that both Republicans in the two big races will come out of the recounts seeing their victories confirmed:
<blockquote>
Heading into the recounts, Republicans Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott lead the two big Florida races for governor and U.S. Senate by counts of <a href="https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/florida/">33,669 and 12,536</a>, respectively. So what are the chances that the recount will reverse the outcomes? According to the 26 elections that have experienced a recount in recent history, almost zero. In fact, the average number of total votes that actually changed from recounts of similar elections was just 311 votes. &#8230;
Citing the nonpartisan group FairVote, the [<a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article221506705.html">Miami Herald</a>] notes that between 2000 and 2016, out of the 4,687 statewide elections only 26 went to a recount &#8212; and the outcomes of only three of those 26 reversed. &#8220;The 2004 Washington governor&#8217;s race, the 2006 Vermont state auditor&#8217;s race and the 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate race. The average swing in those three elections after the recounts? About 311 votes.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38377/bill-nelson-wont-overcome-rick-scott-report-says-hank-berrien">Bill Nelson Won&#8217;t Overcome Rick Scott, Report Says</a>

SEE IT: 12 Hours To Recount Deadline, Here’s What’s NOT Happening At Palm Beach Tabulation Center

On Thursday, a federal judge in Tallahassee threw yet another wrench into the process of finalizing the vote tallies in the battle for Florida&#8217;s U.S. Senate seat between incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and GOP Gov. Rick Scott. As the 3 p.m. deadline approached for counties to report the results of a machine recount in the races for the Nelson-Scott race, as well as the elections for governor and agriculture commissioner, U.S. District Court judge Mark Walker, who was nominated to the U.S. District Court by <a href="https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/walker-mark-eaton">former president Barack Obama in 2012</a>, extended the deadline to Saturday at 5 p.m. for voters whose votes weren&#8217;t tabulated due to signature problems.
Scott leads Nelson by 12,652 votes while GOP governor nominee Ron DeSantis leads Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum by 33,633 votes.
<a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/os-ne-florida-recount-ballot-ruling-20181115-story.html">The Orlando Sentinel</a> reports, &#8220;According to state data presented during a five-hour hearing Wednesday, with 47 of the 67 counties reporting, there were 3,781 ballots rejected for mismatched signatures, including 467 in Orange County.&#8221;
Walker stated, &#8220;The precise issue in this case is whether Florida&#8217;s law that allows county election officials to reject vote-by-mail and provisional ballots for mismatched signatures &#8212; with no standards, an illusory process to cure, and no process to challenge the rejection &#8212; passes constitutional muster. The answer is simple. It does not.&#8221;
Walker had his doubts over the efficacy of canvassing boards, which include the local supervisor of elections, a local judge, and a county commissioner, and decide whether a vote should be counted,.
Attorneys for Nelson and the Florida Democratic Party argued that a problematic signature could arise from injury or illness; attorneys from the Florida Department of State and the National Republican Senatorial Committee asserted that fraud was a genuine concern.
Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone said, &#8220;We are immediately appealing this baseless decision and we are confident we will prevail in the Eleventh Circuit. Let&#8217;s be clear- Bill Nelson&#8217;s high-priced Washington lawyers went to court to argue against a process that they previously argued for. It&#8217;s worth noting that Marc Elias is currently making THE EXACT OPPOSITE ARGUMENT in a similar case in Arizona.&#8221;
If the results tabulated by the 3 p.m. Thursday deadline show a race closer than 0.25%, a manual recount will be triggered. That would engender the review of overvotes, in which a voter voted for more than one candidate, and undervotes, in which the voter left the ballot blank. The Sentinel explained, &#8220;Valid votes are then added to the totals in the machine recount. Those results would be due Sunday at noon under deadlines set in state law. Voters who successfully challenge their rejected ballots could have their votes added to that total &#8230; Official results are scheduled to be certified at 9 a.m. Tuesday.&#8221;
Walker <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/02/16/president-obama-nominates-three-serve-us-district-court">was made</a> a Florida Circuit Judge in Tallahassee in 2009. Between 1999 and 2009, Walker was in private practice, specializing in civil litigation and criminal defense. Between 1997 and 1999, Walker served as an Assistant Public Defender for Florida&#8217;s Second Judicial Circuit.

MORE WAITING: Florida Judge Extends The Deadline For Counting Votes

According to <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/11/14/nelson-needs-royal-flush-in-court-cases-but-will-likely-come-up-short-696249">Politico</a>, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson will, in all likelihood, come up short in his effort to reverse the results in his race against GOP Governor Rick Scott for Nelson&#8217;s Senate seat.
Scott currently leads Nelson by 12,652 votes, while the automatic recount has until Thursday to be tabulated. Politico spoke with experts who assert that Nelson&#8217;s last-ditch effort to grab the Senate seat from Scott will fail for two reasons: the lawsuits Nelson filed came too late, displeasing any courts assigned to review them, and the gap between Scott and Nelson is simply too large to overcome.
Michael Morley, a Florida State University election law professor, told Politico:
<blockquote>
A royal flush is right on the money. Nelson would have to have a perfect hand. He would have to win in every case. And even then, it would not seem to be enough to change the outcome. One study that I&#8217;ve seen shows that in the 21st Century, there have only been three statewide races that have had their results changed as a result of a recount. And in each of those races, the margins were in the hundreds, not more than 12,000.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Currently, only 7,871 absentee ballots were rejected statewide due to &#8220;voter error.&#8221; 35% came from GOP voters; 36% from Democrats, and 29% from independents. Politico notes that 10,186 other ballots were rejected because their envelopes were unsigned; 31% from Republicans, 44% from Democrats and 24% from independents. Politico calculates, &#8220;So if all those ballots were counted, Nelson would have to win 85 percent of them statewide in an election where he couldn&#8217;t get 50 percent of the vote so far.&#8221;
Politico notes that even if Nelson wins with his lawsuits, there&#8217;s no telling the number of ballots that will be counted. There is great irony in the fact that Nelson&#8217;s lead attorney, Marc Elias, has contended against a late-filed lawsuit concerning signature mismatches in Arizona, where the Democratic senatorial candidate was ahead and thus stopping the ballot count was advantageous.
The Scott campaign pointed that out, stating, &#8220;To put it simply, Democrats in Arizona are using the opposite and contradictory argument to the one they plan to use in court tomorrow in Tallahassee. For them, this isn&#8217;t about following the law, and it isn&#8217;t about having a free and fair election. This is about getting rid of Florida laws they don&#8217;t like.&#8221;
University of California election law professor Rick Hasen <a href="https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102236">pointed out</a> the flaw in Nelson&#8217;s arguments, writing, &#8220;I&#8217;m sympathetic to the arguments in general, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1344476">given my belief</a> that election statutes, when possible should be interpreted to enfranchise voters. But Florida laws were rewritten after the 2000 Bush v. Gore debacle to deal with giving too much discretion to election officials to decide on what counts as a valid vote, and rules that are clear in advance are the best for fair election administration. And the complaints about the rules for dealing with signature mismatches or deadlines are not new.&#8221;
Nelson&#8217;s campaign is hoping that undervotes, which occur when a ballot is not counted because of unclear marking by the voter, will put him over the top. But Politico notes, &#8220;&#8230;even if the Senate race in Broward got the same total votes as the gubernatorial contest, Nelson would have to win the additional pool of 26,105 votes by a 50-point margin in a county that he carried by 38 points.&#8221; Additionally, the great bulk of undervotes occur because of bad ballot design, and Florida officials are bound legally not to guess which way a voter would have voted.
Morley summed up that even if Nelson wins all his lawsuits, &#8220;Where are the votes going to come from?&#8221;

Bill Nelson Won’t Overcome Rick Scott, Report Says

Politico

With even former Gov. Jeb Bush now calling for her removal, Broward County supervisor of elections Brenda Snipes appears to be coming to terms with the notion that it&#8217;s &#8220;time to move on&#8221; after yet more botched handling of the counting process, sketchy behavior by her office, and a judge ruling that she has violated Florida laws.
&#8220;There is no question that Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes failed to comply with Florida law on multiple counts, undermining Floridians&#8217; confidence in our electoral process,&#8221; tweeted Bush, who isn&#8217;t given to leveling harsh criticism online. &#8220;Supervisor Snipes should be removed from her office following the recounts.&#8221;
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There is no question that Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes failed to comply with Florida law on multiple counts, undermining Floridians&#8217; confidence in our electoral process. Supervisor Snipes should be removed from her office following the recounts.
&#8212; Jeb Bush (@JebBush) <a href="https://twitter.com/JebBush/status/1062055907629109249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Bush&#8217;s call for her ouster follows a judge agreeing with an emergency lawsuit filed against Snipes by Florida Gov. Rick Scott for failing to abide by Florida laws regarding transparency in the counting process. When Snipes was asked about Bush&#8217;s call for her to be removed after the recount wraps up, Snipes signaled that she knows her time is up.
&#8220;He did post me here for a year and then I liked it and so I ran and I was re-elected four times,&#8221; she said, the<a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-election-snipes-replacement-20181113-story.html"> Sun-Sentinel</a> reports. &#8220;But it is time to move on &#8230; I think I have served the purpose that I came here for, which was to provide a credible election product for our members.&#8221;
But while Snipes is being called on to resign &#8212; should Scott not choose to remove her for incompetence, or DeSantis, should he go on to win the election &#8212; her follow-up comments suggested she might not be willing to walk away from her $178,865 salary just yet.
&#8220;I haven&#8217;t finalized that,&#8221; she said in reference to running again in 2020. &#8220;I&#8217;ll just check with my family they&#8217;ll tell me what I&#8217;m doing.&#8221;
But the Sun-Sentinel stresses that, in the end, it might not be up to her:
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That assumes Snipes, who makes $178,865 a year, would be allowed to finish out her term. Bush&#8217;s removal of Oliphant in 2003 was unusual &#8212; the governor ordinarily removes elected officials from office only if they have been arrested or charged with serious ethical violations, not over issues of competence. Nevertheless, that removal has set a precedent that a sitting elections chiefs can be removed by the governor for failing to do their jobs.
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Heading into the recounts, Scott held a 12,500-vote margin over incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson for the U.S. Senate seat, while Republican Ron DeSantis held a 33,600-vote margin over Democrat Andrew Gillum. As The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38280/what-are-chances-recounts-will-swing-florida-james-barrett">Daily Wire </a>reported Tuesday, historical precedent for recounts indicates that both margins are insurmountable, the average change in vote tallies in similar elections amounting to just 311 votes:
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With all the national attention on the two high-profile races, the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article221506705.html">Miami Herald</a> looked back at previous recount elections in recent history and spoke to some experts to see what the odds of reversal might be. The outlet found some sobering numbers for Democrats. The declarations of victory by Scott and DeSantis and Fried, the Herald concludes, &#8220;may not be premature.&#8221; &#8230;
Citing the nonpartisan group FairVote, the outlet notes that between 2000 and 2016, out of the 4,687 statewide elections only 26 went to a recount &#8212; and the outcomes of only three of those 26 reversed. &#8220;The 2004 Washington governor&#8217;s race, the 2006 Vermont state auditor&#8217;s race and the 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate race. The average swing in those three elections after the recounts? About 311 votes.&#8221;
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38298/limbaugh-democrats-media-doing-exactly-what-we-james-barrett">Limbaugh: Democrats, Media Doing Exactly What We Predicted In Florida</a>

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