President Donald Trump said on Monday that former Florida Governor Rick Scott and Republican Representative Ron DeSantis should be named winners of the state's midterm election, despite the fact that some votes still haven't been counted. Trump took to Twitter, claiming there was fraudulent voter activity in Florida's election.
"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!" Trump wrote.
Trump didn't offer any evidence to back up claims of ballots being infected.
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
DeSantis narrowly beat Democrat candidate Andrew Gillum in Florida's gubernatorial race with fewer than 34,000 votes on election night. Meanwhile, Scott pulled ahead of Democrat Bill Nelson in the race for Senate with just 50.1 percent of the vote compared to Nelson's 49.9 percent, according to The New York Times.
Initially, Gillum conceded to DeSantis, but he withdrew his concession after a recount was ordered on Saturday.
A set of uncounted ballots was collected by the elections board of Miami-Dade County over the weekend. A spokesperson for the county's supervisor of elections confirmed to CNN 266 uncounted ballots were discovered in the Opa-locka mail facility. The shipment was supposed to arrive by mail to the election facility by 7 p.m. on the day of the election, but they were never received.
Under Florida law, ballots that don't arrive at the proper department facility at the designated time are not considered in the vote.
Votes for three of Florida's elections are expected to be recounted, including the race for governor, senator and commissioner of agriculture.
Gillium appeared at New Mount Olive Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale and requested for all the votes to be counted. "I am not here to ask for votes," he said on Sunday night. "I am simply here to say that for the votes that have been cast the ought to be counted."
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