BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – The battle in Broward County continues both in court and inside the Supervisor of Elections office Monday as the second day of the recount continued.
On Monday morning, the Lauderhill office received two new ballot-counting machines, bringing the total up to 12. Broward County Supervisor of Election officials hope the additional equipment will speed up the process to recount 715,000 ballots by the Thursday 3 p.m. deadline.
While the canvassing board and representatives for the candidates watched over the recount, across town in a courtroom, a judge held an emergency hearing to follow up on a lawsuit filed over the weekend against Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes by Governor and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rick Scott.
According to the motion, Scott wanted to have law enforcement impound all voting machines, tallying devices and ballots until the entire process is done. After a day of deliberations, both parties agreed to have additional deputies posted at the recount area, until the final count is finished.
Scott's attorney, Jason Zimmerman, outlined the agreement and the roles of the three deputies in court on Monday.
"One. One deputy to monitor the on-site cameras. Two. One deputy to monitor the storage of USB drives. And three, that these deputies will report to a (Broward County Sheriff's Office) supervisor," Zimmerman said.
Circuit Chief Judge Jack Tuter said he’s seen no evidence of wrongdoing in the vote counting in Broward County and urged lawyers on all sides to “ramp down the rhetoric," according to The Associated Press.
The ruling came on the same day incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson also filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of State in an effort to count mail-in ballots that were postmarked before but not delivered by Election Day. Attorney Marc Elias says voters should not be disenfranchised because of delayed mail deliveries.
Nelson also released a video Monday calling on Scott to recuse himself from the recount process as governor of Florida.
"He’s filed lawsuits to try to stop votes from being counted and to impound voting machines. The reason he’s doing these things is obvious: he’s worried when all the votes are counted, he’ll lose the election," Nelson said in the recorded statement. "But it’s also obvious that Scott cannot oversee this process in a fair and impartial way.
And, thus, he should remove himself from any role in the recount process so the people can have confidence in the integrity of the election."
The Florida League of Women Voters filed a lawsuit Monday afternoon asking Scott recuse himself from the recount.
"After receiving no response to a letter to Gov. Scott urging him to immediately relinquish authority and remove himself from any control of any person or agency responsible for the processing and counting of ballots from the Nov. 6 general election, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause Florida are asking the Federal Courts to intervene," the nonpartisan organization said in a statement.
Unofficial election results show Scott leading Nelson by just 0.14 percentage points.