Florida election recount evokes drama of 2000

Donald Trump has accused the Democrats of trying to “steal” two elections in Florida, amid an increasingly acrimonious recount that has evoked sharp memories of 2000 presidential election.

Both the race for state governor and remaining senate seat had been declared for the Republicans following last week's US midterms, but the closeness of the results means a machine recount has been ordered by law.

The deadline to recount over 8 million votes has been set for Thursday, but analysts say possible legal challenges mean it could take weeks for the winners to be confirmed.

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Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott, who is currently leading his incumbent Democratic rival Bill Nelson for the senate by just 12,500 votes, or about 0.15% of the total vote, has asked a judge to order police to impound voting machines and ballots when they are not in use. He has also filed a separate lawsuit asking the judge to order that any ballots counted after noon on Saturday be disregarded, saying that to include them would break state law.

CNN says the suits are “part of a larger developing Republican strategy to cast the recount as an opportunity for fraudsters to hijack the election”.

Ramping up the rhetoric, Trump urged Florida election officials to abandon recount efforts and declare Scott the winner. Both men have warned of electoral fraud, “but neither have offered any evidence to back their claims”, reports the BBC.

Yet the Democrats are giving as good as they get. Nelson has also filed a federal lawsuit asking that provisional and absentee ballots not be rejected because election officials deem that the signatures do not match voters’ signatures on file.

“If Rick Scott wanted to make sure every legal ballot is counted, he would not be suing to try and stop voters from having their legal ballot counted as intended,” Nelson said. “He’s doing this for the same reason he’s been making false and panicked claims about voter fraud - he’s worried that when all the votes are counted he’ll lose this election.”

“Each side has accused the other of trying to subvert democracy” says Reuters, “in an echo of the drama in the 2000 presidential vote recount that unfolded for weeks in Florida.”

Almost two decades after hanging chads and butterfly ballots earned South Florida ignominy in the 2000 presidential recount, it is “once again ground zero for a closely watched recount”, says NBC News.

The scene of the infamous Bush vs. Gore recount 18 years ago, the Broward County Election office has been newly fortified by layers of police and private security forces to protect vote-counters from the protests raging outside.

“It was like deja vu all over again walking in here,” said Larry Davis, an attorney who has monitored elections for Democratic candidates and officials since 2000.

“Of course that had a little more importance to it”, he added.