‘Be ready for a recount’: Rick Scott talks lessons of 2018 Senate race

rick scott
Recount? Have lawyers on retainer, Senator says.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott expects a close election Tuesday night in Florida, and offered advice Monday night to interested parties.

“Be ready for a recount,” the first-term Republican said on Newsmax in response to questions about the recount in the 2018 U.S. Senate race and potential parallels with the race between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden

Scott told host Sean Spicer that “you’ve got to be ready for a recount” given the likelihood of yet another close election in the state.

“Be ready for a recount. You’ve got to be ready for a recount. You’ve got to assume you’re going to have a recount,” the Senator told Spicer, famous before broadcasting for high-level stints in both the Trump White House and the Republican National Committee.

“Unfortunately, we have to have in these races now a lot of lawyers. We’ve got to have a lot of people watching the polls,” Scott said.

“In my race in 2018, they found 95,000 ballots after Election Night. That’s inconsistent with the law, but we had activist judges who allowed that to happen.”

“I hope that doesn’t happen this time. I don’t think it’s going to happen this time,” Scott said.

Scott’s 2018 race against Sen. Bill Nelson indeed was close: The manual recount cut Scott’s lead over Nelson to just 10,033 votes, or 0.12 percent of more than 8.1 million votes cast.

Machine recounts come into play when the margin in the unofficial vote is under 0.5%.

Manual recounts of overvotes and undervotes can come into play if the margin is 0.25% or less after the machine recount.

Despite Scott’s worries about a recount, he said he thought Trump would have a “nice win in Florida, probably bigger than he had last time.”

The Senator said similar things in a media blitz Monday morning, saying on the Fox News Channel that he “absolutely” expected a Florida winner to be known Tuesday night.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes for the New York Post and National Review also, with previous work in the American Conservative and Washington Times and a 15+ year run as a columnist in Folio Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


5 comments

  • S B ANTHONY

    November 2, 2020 at 6:49 pm

    No recounting in.a landslide!
    Sorry Dick.

  • James Robert Miles

    November 2, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    And now, the GOP disinformation campaign begins. They are going to attempt to disavow legitimate voting by throwing doubt as to the legality of the voting process. They will provide NO EVIDENCE as Trump has claimed even before the election that if he doesn’t win than the election is fixed. The GOP has tried to throw out legitimate votes ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. In some cases it has worked while in others, it hasn’t. For the GOP, it is ALL ABOUT POWER and they will do whatever they can get away with, legal or illegal in order to win. It is revealing of what they are all about that they don’t believe in a fair election. They want to win by any means necessary, legitimate or otherwise! Trump and the GOP HAVE GOT TO GO!! Hopefully that will happen in this election!!

  • Sonja Fitch

    November 3, 2020 at 6:07 am

    Recount will not be needed nazi rick! So tired of our two goptrump death cult Senators! Talking and walking and strutting out their bullshit for goptrump death cult leader Trump! Vote Democrat up and down ballot for the common good!

  • Charlotte Greenbarg

    November 3, 2020 at 7:27 am

    Ah, the far left trolls are paid to post the garbage!

    #Trump2020

  • Frankie M.

    November 3, 2020 at 8:41 am

    Why wait for a recount? Just declare victory now before the polls close. It’s much easier that way. Better for TV too! Just ask Trump, the reality TV star. He’ll tell you.

    Signed,

    Frankie M. aka an unpaid troll that’s ridin with Biden baby!

Comments are closed.


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