Florida is once again at the center of a vote counting controversy this time involving Congressman Allen West. In a bizarre swing of events, 2,000 early votes were recounted flipping the results from in favor of Republican Allen West to Democrat Patrick Murphy.
In Palm Beach County court today, Republican Congressman Allen West lost an attempt for an injunction to impound ballots being stored at the county’s Supervisor of Elections service center in Riviera Beach, Florida.
Congressman Allen West is refusing to concede defeat, and has filed a lawsuit demanding a full recount of votes in his Florida districtafter his efforts to get re-elected to the House of Representatives appeared to fall some 2,500 votes short.
West is short by 11 votes in Palm Beach County and is short 2,456 votes in the overall district 18 against Democrat Patrick Murphy.
The lawsuit filed by West, at a Palm Beach County court have called for paper ballots to be counted and voting machines “impounded.”
“If satisfactory answers are not forthcoming, we may need to direct our attorneys to take further legal actions to resolve these serious legal questions about the canvass of the election in St. Lucie County,” wrote Mr. West’s campaign manager Tim Edson.
The Associated Press reported Mr. Murphy was ahead of Mr. West by 2,456 votes, or 0.8 percent of the total cast. That’s just shy of the 0.5 percent margin that would cause a mandatory recount.
The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office must submit preliminary county election results to the Florida Division of Elections office by 3 p.m. today.
Featured Image of Allen West from Library of Congress.
Allen West Refuses To Concede Victory To Democrat Patrick Murphy Despite Losing Appeal.
