Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio on Thursday charged that two Democrat-controlled counties in the state, in possible violation of election law, have been reporting a “slow drip” of tens of thousands of additional ballots favorable to several Democratic candidates for statewide office, including incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson.
Liberal lawyers, Rubio said in an extraordinary series of tweets that alleged incompetence if not outright complicity by Florida officials, are “descending on” the state in a calculated attempt to “change the results” and “try and steal” races for Senate and agriculture commissioner.
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, these two blue bins,circled in the attached picture,hold the ballots that remain to be counted in #BrowardCounty as of 4:20pm this afternoon. Almost 48 hours after the polls closed. pic.twitter.com/EJxJYxq9XG
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 8, 2018
Rubio’s explosive posts come as a recount now appears imminent in Florida’s high-profile gubernatorial contest between Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Ron DeSantis, based on new vote totals — even though Gillum has already conceded.
“Florida law requires counties report early voting & vote-by-mail within 30 minutes after polls close,” Rubio wrote on Twitter. “43 hours after polls closed 2 Democrat strongholds #BrowardCounty & #PalmBeachCounty are still counting & refusing to disclose how many ballots they have left to count.”
Florida statutes mandate that the “canvassing board shall report all early voting and all tabulated vote-by-mail results to the Department of State within 30 minutes after the polls close” and that “thereafter, the canvassing board shall report, with the exception of provisional ballot results, updated precinct election results to the department at least every 45 minutes until all results are completely reported.”- READ MORE