Plaintiffs want presidential recount in Florida
Three Central Florida voters are mounting an unlikely bid to overturn the presidential election in the Sunshine State.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in Leon Circuit Court, they assert that Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump, actually won Florida. The plaintiffs, who live in Osceola and Volusia counties, say the state’s official election results were off because of hacking, malfunctioning voting machines and other problems.
They're asking for a hand recount of every paper ballot in Florida, at the expense of defendants including President-elect Trump, Gov. Rick Scott and the 29 Republican presidential electors from Florida.
But even lawyers for the plaintiffs acknowledge time isn’t on their side. Clint Curtis, an Orlando attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the defendants may not respond by the time the Electoral College meets on Dec. 19.
"They can ignore it entirely,” he said.
He said he has received a “deluge” of reports from voters across the state of problems on election day, including people being turned away at the polls and told they’d already voted. Florida Division of Elections officials reported only a few "minor issues" on election day.
Curtis said he hopes Trump, who has blasted recount efforts elsewhere, will get behind one in Florida. Officially, Trump got more than 4.6 million votes in Florida, beating Clinton by more than 112,000 votes.
“He’s mentioned he wants to fix the rigged system,” he said. “This will give the opportunity to do that. If it were a normal politician, I’d say our chances are very slim. But it’s not a normal politician — it’s Donald Trump.”
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.
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