Both Rick Scott and Bill Nelson take to courts as recount in U.S. Senate race looms

Jacksonville, FL — As the vote margin in Florida's Senate race continues to narrow between Florida Governor Rick Scott and incumbent Senator Bill Nelson, we're now seeing Scott direct the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate.

"It has been over 48 hours since the polls closed and Broward and Palm Beach counties are still finding and counting ballots. And the supervisors, Brenda Snipes and Susan Bucher, cannot seem to say how many ballots still exist, and where these ballots came from, or where they have been. The people of Florida deserve fairness and transparency. And the supervisors are failing to give it to us," says Scott.

Scott says both counties failed to follow Florida law, which requires that vote-by-mail and absentee ballots are counted within 30 minutes of polls closing.  He further alleges that Palm Beach County is failing to update the Department of State with reports every 45 minutes, until election results are completely reported.

"Every Floridian should be concerned there may be rampant fraud happening in Palm Beach and Broward counties," says Scott.

Scott says he will not sit idly by, as he accuses 'unethical liberals' of trying to 'steal' the election.

"We all know what is going on. Every person in Florida knows exactly what is happening. Their goal is to keep mysteriously finding more votes until the election turns out the way they want. And when that fails, they will file a bunch of lawsuits to try to overturn the will of the voters. There's 67 counties in Florida. Only these two counties are involved in these shenanigans," says Scott.

Scott says he will continue to pursue every legal option available. He’s also filing a lawsuit against both counties.

Scott closed out his remarks saying he's proud to be the next Senator of Florida.

Nelson’s camp fired back Friday.

During a conference call with reporters, Nelson’s lawyer Mark Elias says  "Just look at the behavior of your governor."

Elias says it isn’t appropriate for a governor to suggest he’s going to use his power to prevent ballots from being counted after they were legally cast.

The Democratic Executive Committee of Florida and Bill Nelson’s campaign filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court saying all provisional and mail in ballots in the state with mismatched signatures should be counted.

The complaint lists Ken Detzner, the Florida secretary of state, as the defendant.

According to the lawsuit, people who review the signatures in different counties have different levels of training. So the lawsuit says all the ballots should be counted since the chances are high that some of the ones that are thrown out would most likely be legitimate ballots.

A spokesperson for Florida Senator Bill Nelson has issued the following statement:

“The goal here is to see that all the votes in Florida are counted and counted accurately. Rick Scott’s action appears to be politically motivated and borne out of desperation.”