Miami, Nov 12 (EFEUSA).- The campaign team of Democratic Senator Bill Nelson filed a lawsuit this Monday against the Secretary of State of Florida, Ken Detzner, for not counting the votes sent via postal mail and that reached the electoral authorities. after election day.
"No Floridian should be denied their legitimate vote due to delays in the mail. We are suing to protect these ballots," confirmed on Twitter Marc Elías, an attorney for Nelson's campaign team and the Democratic National Committee, who this morning filed the lawsuit in federal court.
The lawsuit aims to "prevent the disenfranchisement of potentially thousands of Florida voters who legally submitted their ballots before November 6," the day the US held midterm elections, but their ballots have not been accepted by the corresponding supervisor, according to the brief presented in the court of the northern district of Florida, based in Pensacola.
According to the plaintiffs, in this state almost 3.5 million voters mailed their ballots, but until two days after the general election a "staggering" figure of 874,818 of those votes had not been tabulated.
The complaint represents a new chapter in the intersection of lawsuits filed in recent days by the campaign teams of both Nelson, who is seeking re-election, and the Republican candidate for senator and current state governor, Rick Scott.
In the race for the US Senate, Scott maintains a narrow margin of just over 12,500 votes (0.15%) over Nelson, forcing the Secretary of State to order a recount of the votes over the weekend, a tedious process. that all 67 counties must finish next Thursday.
Florida law establishes the obligation to recount all votes when the difference between two candidates is 0.50 points or less at the end of the count, and even requires manual counting if it is 0.25 points or less.
On Sunday afternoon, Scott, who has accused his opponent of attempting to "commit fraud," filed three lawsuits with election supervisors in Broward and Palm Beach counties, one of which alleges that votes were counted after the date. limit.
These complaints were added to others that the outgoing state governor filed last week against Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes, and for which a first hearing is being held today, due to delays and mismanagement in the vote counting process.
The recount order is also motivated by the margin of less than half a percentage point in the tight race for state governor in which Republican Ron DeSantis maintains an advantage of just over 33,500 votes over Democrat Andrew Gillum, who on Tuesday night He even admitted defeat and then recanted on Saturday.
Gillum, the current mayor of Tallahasse, participated in a "faith event" at a Baptist church in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday in which he insisted that all votes be counted, and is expected to make the same invocation in another appearance scheduled tonight in a Boyton Beach church.
Not only have protesters from both parties joined the controversy, who have been stationed in front of Snipes' office these days, but also the American president, Donald Trump, himself, who claims, without evidence, that an attempt is made to "steal" in Florida. the elections.
"The Florida election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis, as a large number of new ballots appeared out of nowhere, and many of them are lost or falsified. An honest vote count is no longer possible," he wrote today Trump on his Twitter account.
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