Judge denies Rick Scott request for injunction against Broward County amid recount

Rick Scott

A Broward County judge has denied a request from the Rick Scott team for an injunction to impound certain Broward County voting machines as the recount in the U.S. Senate race continues.

The term-limited Republican governor Scott is currently ahead, but in mandatory machine recount range, over incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

According to Alex Seitz-Wald, an NBC News political reporter, Scott’s legal team said they were not attempting to interfere with the recount.

Instead, they asked that the ballots and voting machines remain impounded only when not being reviewed or used as part of the recount process.

Chief Circuit Judge Jack Tuter denied that injunction request, saying, “I don’t think I have any evidence to enter a mandatory injunction right now.”

However, Tuter did agree with Scott’s attorneys that additional protections be added to restore the public’s confidence in the recount process.

To that end, Tuter recommended adding three more deputies from the Broward Sheriff’s Office to oversee the work being done by the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office.

Brenda Snipes, who heads that office, has taken on heat since last Tuesday’s vote. Many have criticized the county’s slow process, while some Republicans, including Scott, have openly accused Snipes’ office of attempting to manufacture votes in a conspiracy to “steal” the elections for Democrats.

President Donald Trump has jumped on that bandwagon, saying on Twitter, “An honest vote count is no longer possible — ballots massively infected” — though he did not offer evidence to underpin that claim.

He also alleged “large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere,” but didn’t explicitly say that fake ballots had, for example, been made.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1061962869376540672

Court proceedings under Tuter were set to reconvene at 1 p.m. Monday. Tuter also asked lawyers on both sides to “tamp down the rhetoric” regarding the recount.

“We have to be careful about what we say,” Tuter argued.

Ryan Nicol

Ryan Nicol covers news out of South Florida for Florida Politics. Ryan is a native Floridian who attended undergrad at Nova Southeastern University before moving on to law school at Florida State. After graduating with a law degree he moved into the news industry, working in TV News as a writer and producer, along with some freelance writing work. If you'd like to contact him, send an email to [email protected].


4 comments

  • mck

    November 12, 2018 at 2:45 pm

    This is exactly what happened in Bush v Gore that made SCOTUS take the case away from the FL Supreme Court. They felt the FLSC was acting irrationally and arbitrarily.

    You went to law school, but perhaps you are very young, or perhaps my school, UVA, which in 2001, dedicated a year to understanding Bush v Gore, just gives me insight you have not bothered to investigate, despite the first rule of any legal issue being to crack open the case law, and with appellate cases, the briefs and law journals as well.

    Tuter telling the sides to refrain from their first amendment right, after denying a preliminary injunction, is going to make SCOTUS go nuts. Prilimary injunctions are used to investigate if there is cause. In fact, all injunctions are.

    Everyone keeps saying this is a repeat of 2000, yet no one is actually trying to understand or explain 2000. It’s just used as a joke. They don’t understand that this is nothing like 2000, because we have legal precedent and extremly influential legal dicta. This isn’t 2000 at all. And given the hyperpartisanship that is already poisoning this country, which is a million times worse than it was in 2000, we may finally burn it all to ground.

  • Mike McCormack

    November 12, 2018 at 3:46 pm

    As a Broward county resident for the past 20 years i’m not surprised one bit.

    Rick Scott YOU HAD THE CHANCE to rightfully terminate Brenda Snipes after the Wasserman Schultz / Tim Canova mess where ballots were ILLEGALLY DESTROYED.

    Don’t blame Broward voters as nobody is allowed to compete against Brenda Snipes, She does not allow it.

    I have zero faith in fair and legitimate elections, rigged Broward elections! Hope you enjoy the “Tim Canova treatment” as you allowed it!

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