GOP Florida Gov. Rick Scott pledged Wednesday to recuse himself from certifying election results in his high-stakes race to replace Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
“I recused myself from certifying results on the Elections Canvassing Commission in 2014, and I will do so again this year,” Scott said in a tweet, referring to his 2014 gubernatorial reelection bid. “This is nothing new. Bill Nelson is confused and doesn’t even know how Florida works- I have no role in supervising/ overseeing the ongoing recount process.
Nelson’s campaign has argued that Scott could not be trusted to certify the results of the race, which is currently in the middle of a tense machine recount process and the subject of a swirl of lawsuits filed by each campaign. Common Cause and the League of Women Voters sued to push Scott to remove himself from the process.
Scott currently holds a lead of just 12,600 votes over Nelson ahead of Thursday’s deadline for the machine recount to be completed.
A federal judge in Tallahassee is expected to decide Wednesday afternoon on Nelson’s request that thousands of provisional and mail-in ballots rejected over apparent signature mismatches be counted.
