Lawyer says Andrew Gillum mulling legal action amid Florida recount

Andrew Gillum (3)

On MSNBC Monday morning, Democratic candidate for Governor Andrew Gillum‘s recount attorney, Barry Richard, suggested the gubernatorial candidate was seriously considering legal action.

Host Hallie Jackson noted that some counties will struggle to meet the 3 p.m. Thursday deadline for completing the recount.

Richard said that, if that happens, “the candidates involved have to decide which way to go.”

“I know that, in the case of Mayor Gillum, he has been reluctant to become involved in litigation,” he said. “But we are receiving an increasing amount of evidence that Florida’s effort to make the (elections) statutes more efficient has been done at the sacrifice of the fundamental right to vote.

“… He is reviewing his options,” Richard added, noting that Gillum has “always had the option” to file a lawsuit.

“Up until now, we have not been actively preparing to file one. But as of this morning,” Richard said, “we had a discussion in which he wants … advice regarding what options he has.

“What Mayor Gillum is concerned about,” he went on, “is whether or not it ultimately would affect his race, that he feels an obligation to ensure votes are counted, not to sit back when we are learning that they’re not being counted for a number of reasons. Not fraud, by the way, but the operation of the statutes.”

Gillum is down by nearly 34,000 votes currently.

“I don’t think he is being motivated right now by whether or not he will turn the election around,” Richard said. Rather, the concern is potential “disenfranchising of voters.”

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


One comment

  • mck

    November 13, 2018 at 12:23 pm

    “What Mayor Gillum is concerned about is whether or not it would ultimately effect his race.”

    The weasel words after this statement, because of its cravenness, was undoubtedly met immediately by reporters with shock. All of the parties for counting votes that are invalid by law or objecting to doing are doing it solely because they hope it will positively impact their races.

    Yesterday, Gillum went ballistic over 120memailed ballots by people living in what is a basically an uninhabitable place due one of the worst hurricanes ever. If investingated, most likely they used their phones, because their phones are their only connection with the outside world.

    My father works for FEMA, he just got back from his 1st deploment. He said you cannot imagine it, unless you are there, and theen you cannot imagine them ever recovering. Yet Gillum went there.

    Gillum’s freak out unambiguously suggested it was fraud. There is no excuse for not properly filling out a ballot, signing it with your actual signature, and getting it there on time in Broward, we are doing peachy keen right now, other than laziness.

    Gillum went ballistic over complaints that 22 invalid ballots had been included in the Broward recount.

    I’ll give you 3 guesses what the difference between Bay county and Broward county is.

    I’m not a Republican, nor a Democrat. And I voted for neither. Your candidates have proved they all are equally detestable.

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