Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R.) responded to the ongoing election problems in Florida on Thursday night, tweeting that Florida voters elected him and the votes had been counted twice.
"Last week, Florida voters elected me as their next U.S. Senator and now the ballots have been counted twice. I am incredibly proud and humbled by the opportunity to serve Florida in Washington. Our state needs to move forward," Scott tweeted.
Last week, Florida voters elected me as their next U.S. Senator and now the ballots have been counted twice. I am incredibly proud and humbled by the opportunity to serve Florida in Washington. Our state needs to move forward.
— Rick Scott (@ScottforFlorida) November 16, 2018
The recount concluded on Thursday and showed Scott gaining in his lead over incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.). Although the recount has been tallied, the controversy over the race has not dissipated. There was one county where the secretary of state didn't accept the recounted results. Broward County's recounted tally was not accepted because it was two minutes late in submitting results.
Palm Beach County also failed to meet the deadline for the recount because their voter machines broke down.
Democratic lawyer Marc Elias announced a new lawsuit shortly after the recount deadline passed to get votes counted by hand.
"We have sued Palm Beach County and the Florida Sec of State to require a hand count of all ballots in the county due to systematic machine failure during the machine recount," Elias tweeted.
In a separate lawsuit filed Tuesday, Judge Mark Walker ruled against Nelson Friday morning regarding a pair of state Division of Elections rules. The rules for ballot counting, called the "magic words" requirement and the "consistency" requirement, were allowed to be used.
"The issue is whether the use of these reasonable and natural rules is constitutional," Walker wrote. "It is."
After the machine recount showed Scott still leading by less than a 0.25 percent margin, the race will head to a hand recount.
Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) suggested Thursday night that Nelson shouldn't concede, despite losing votes in the recount.
Update 10:46 a.m.: This post was updated to include Judge Walker's ruling against Nelson's Tuesday lawsuit.