A Broward County judge on Monday turned down Gov. Rick Scott’s request to “impound and secure” all voting machines in Broward’s elections headquarters when they’re not being used to recount ballots in his U.S. Senate race against incumbent Bill Nelson.
But Circuit Judge Jack Tuter offered a compromise: Add three Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies to the current lineup of BSO deputies, local police officers and private security guards overseeing the recount underway at the county’s elections center in Lauderhill.
Citing a lack of evidence pointing to any wrongdoing, Tuter stopped short of granting the Scott campaign’s request for an injunction to impound the machines. But he agreed with Scott’s lawyers that “there needs to be an additional layer of confidence” in the vote-recount system in Broward. The votes in the U.S. Senate race between Scott, the Republican, and Nelson, the Democrat, are part of the recount. Unofficially, Scott leads Nelson by about 12,500 votes.
Tuter asked the lawyers representing Scott’s campaign and attorneys for Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes to come back later in the day with a security plan to assign the three additional BSO deputies to protect the voting machines and ballots during the recount of races for U.S. Senate, Florida’s governor and state agriculture commissioner.