President Donald Trump tweeted claims of voter fraud in Florida’s midterm elections with zero evidence Monday morning, calling Florida’s election in favor of the GOP candidates.
Trump claimed “large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere,” and that many more are “missing or forged,” but provided no reasoning for these claims.
“Must go with Election Night!” the president tweeted.
The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2018
On the evening of Nov. 6, it appeared incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson would have to cede to his opponent, Republican Gov. Rick Scott, and in the race for governor, Republican Ron DeSantis claimed victory over Democrat Andrew Gillum.
As more votes trickled in, however, the margins tightened, and the state is undergoing the processes outlined by state law to ensure accuracy. The tight margins, falling below 0.5%, sparked a machine recount in both the senate and the gubernatorial elections, per state law. If the margin falls below 0.25%, state law demands a manual recount of ballots with either no selection or multiple selections for the position.
Trump tweeted that ballots “showed up out of nowhere,” but it’s normal for some votes to arrive later. While regular mail-in ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on election day, says The Washington Post, ballots from overseas and military voters have until Friday, Nov. 16 to arrive and be counted.
Hours after Trump tweeted his unsubstantiated claims of fraud Monday morning, a state judge determined that there was no evidence of fraud, denying a request for ballots and machines not in use for the recount be impounded. State Judge Jack Tuter appeared to criticize the nonchalant use of such consequential claims in his statement.
“Everything the lawyers are saying out there at the elections office is being beamed out across the country. We should be careful what we say,” said Tuter, according to The Post. “These words mean things these days, as everybody in the room knows.”
