U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is calling on Gov. Rick Scott to recuse himself from “any role” in Florida’s recount process as the supervisors of elections across the state begin a mandatory machine recount of more than 8.2 million ballots cast in this year’s U.S. Senate race.
“(Rick Scott) should remove himself from any role in the recount process so the people can have confidence in the integrity of the election,” Nelson said in a video statement released today by his campaign. “Given his efforts to undermine the votes of Floridians, this is the only way that we can ensure that the people’s votes are protected.”
Meanwhile, Scott went on “Fox & Friends” Monday morning and insisted he had won the election.
“I’m going to focus on getting to Washington and getting my agenda implemented,” Scott said.
He called Nelson a “sore loser.”
Nelson said Scott is “using his power as governor to try to undermine the voting process” and his recent actions make clear that he “cannot oversee this process in a fair and impartial way.”
“He’s thrown around words like voter fraud without any proof,” Nelson said.
Nelson said Scott stood on the steps of the governor’s mansion and tried to use the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the Broward elections chief.
“He’s filed lawsuits to try to stop votes from being counted and to impound voting machines.The reason he’s doing these things is obvious,” Nelson said. “He’s worried when all the votes are counted, he’ll lose the election.”