Nelson campaign sues over Election Day deadline for mail-in ballots

The legal team representing Sen. Bill Nelson wants a court to throw out a law that excludes thousands of mail-in ballots that arrived after the Nov. 6 deadline. Under current Florida law, mail-in ballots sent from outside the United States are counted if received up to ten days after the election, but those sent from within the state or elsewhere in the United States must be received by 7 p.m. Election Day. Nelson’s team wants the overseas rule to be applied to all mail-in ballots. “There is no reason why voters in Miami or Palm Beach or the panhandle or other state in the country shouldn’t have their ballots counted,” Nelson lawyer Marc Elias told reporters in a conference call Monday.

The mail-in ballots could make an important difference in the race, as Republican Gov. Rick Scott leads incumbent Bill Nelson, a Democrat, by 12,552 votes. The state is conducting a machine recount of all ballots. The two campaigns have filed a string of lawsuits in an effort to secure victory. Scott declared himself the winner the night of the Nov. 6 election, but Nelson never conceded. Scott’s lead has since diminished to within a quarter of a percent. Elias is awaiting word on another lawsuit filed by the Nelson campaign challenging the state’s exact match law, which requires the signatures on provisional ballots to match the voter registration signature on file.

A judge has asked both sides to provide additional information and has not yet ruled on the Nelson lawsuit. Elias said nonexperts should not be throwing out ballots because they judge signatures to be mismatched. “We have seen a series of states in recent months have their signature match laws struck down as unconstitutional for this very reason,” Elias said. Elias said the Thursday deadline for the machine ballot recount should be loosened if counties cannot finish in time, as Palm Beach has signaled will be the case. Elias also warned the media against reporting Scott’s claim that election supervisors in Broward and Palm Beach Counties are committing fraud because, among other problems, vote counts lagged past Election Day, and thousands of new votes appeared well after the polls closed.

So far, there has been no evidence of fraud in either county, although there are reports of ballot boxes recovered in a school and a parking garage, and both counties have attempted to block oversight of ballot counting. “Let’s not let those allegations that have no support in fact drive the coverage,” Elias told reporters on the call. “What we have in Florida is an orderly recount, one we are cooperating with, one we think needs to be carried out in a prompt way, one that should not be rushed. We should certainly not let arbitrary deadlines prevent every vote from being counted.” Elias said he endorsed a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters and the group Common Cause that would force Scott to recuse himself from any oversight of the recount.

Elections are handled locally but Scott, in his role as governor, had ordered Florida law enforcement officials to look for fraud in Broward and Palm Beach. “At a minimum, the governor has raised the question about whether or not he is engaged in conduct that raises the appearance of impropriety,” Elias said.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/nelson-campaign-sues-over-election-day-deadline-for-mail-in-ballots

Eric Swalwell teases 2020 run: Iowa trip has 'emboldened me'

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said Monday his visit to Iowa over the weekend had "emboldened" him to announce whether he would launch a 2020 bid for the White House. “Very well received there. They want new energy, new ideas, and a new confidence, and that really emboldened me to make a decision soon," Swalwell said during an interview with CNN's "The Situation Room" after he became the first Democrat to travel to Iowa following the 2018 midterm elections.

Swalwell has made several trips to Iowa, the first state to caucus over presidential hopefuls. The House Intelligence Committee member and cable news fixture also appeared in New Hampshire, the first state to hold primaries, just before the Nov. 6 elections to stump for local Democratic congressional candidates. The 37-year-old attended River Music Experience's “Win Congress, Change America” event last Saturday in Davenport, Iowa, to thank residents for sending their first women representatives to the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats Abby Finkenauer and Cindy Axne. He also met with the Asian & Latino Coalition in Des Moines and Iowa Democratic Party chairs in Dubuque, according to Politico. "I was born in the western part of the state, and I believe that winning the majority (in the House) had to go through Iowa," Swalwell told the crowd, the Quad-City Times reported. Swalwell's comments follow a Politico report last week that quoted a source saying he was "definitely running."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/eric-swalwell-teases-2020-run-iowa-trip-has-emboldened-me

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Claims Brenda Snipes ‘Followed The Law’

Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed on Monday that Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes has “followed the law,” despite a ruling from a circuit judge that reaches the exact opposite conclusion. During a CNN interview with anchor Jim Sciutto, Wasserman Schultz defended Snipes despite her history of being involved in election misconduct in Florida.

“Number one, [Snipes] has followed the process as Florida law prescribes,” Wasserman Schultz asserted. “And there’s been absolutely nothing amiss that’s been found by Rick Scott’s own department of state election monitors who have been in her office since the spring.” “[There’s] no evidence of anything that has gone wrong. The process is simply working. The deadlines have been met,” the congresswoman claimed.

However, a circuit court judge ruled this past Friday that Snipes did violate Florida public records law by not providing requested election information to Florida Governor Rick Scott, who is running for Senate. Scott filed a lawsuit late Thursday night alleging that Snipes was improperly withholding election information, including a count of total ballots cast and a breakdown of votes by category. Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips found that Snipes’ failure to provide that information to Scott’s campaign was a violation of Florida law, the Miami Herald reported. The information “should be a matter of record at this time and immediately available,” Judge Phillips held, ordering Snipes to release the information by 7 pm Friday.

As far as Wasserman Schultz’s claim that there is “no evidence of anything that has gone wrong,” the Herald also reported that Snipes had “accidentally” mixed approved provisional ballots with unapproved provisional ballots. “There are at least 20 illegal votes mixed into an anonymous pile of 205 [provisional ballots], all sitting in a machine that counted them but did not add them to the final count,” the Herald said last week.

Florida is currently conducting a recount in the Senate race between Republican Rick Scott and Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. Scott was initially projected to win the race, however, his margin of victory is small enough to trigger a recount via Florida election law.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2018/11/12/debbie-wasserman-schultz-claims-brenda-snipes-followed-the-law/