By Tim Scott Covington News staffMore than 400 people have filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida seeking a recount in the state’s hotly contested presidential election.
In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Florida, the plaintiffs include two women who voted in a separate presidential election in 2008 and one man who voted for Trump but also backed the Democratic nominee.
“I have a very strong suspicion that my ballot was altered,” said the plaintiff, who requested anonymity.
“The question is, how did it happen?”
The lawsuit also seeks a full recount of the state election and an injunction barring the state from counting any of the votes.
It was filed after Florida State University Professor of Political Science Michael McDonald testified at a Senate hearing last week that he saw “a substantial amount of paper” being counted in the polls and that it “was not a matter of people having faith in the results”.
He said the results showed Trump’s lead was only 4,600 votes.
In response, the Florida Democratic Party said that a recount would be “extremely expensive” and that the state “will have a legal fight on its hands”.
“The State’s lawsuit is a desperate attempt to hide behind fraud and manipulation,” a spokesperson for the Florida Republican Party said.
“Florida is a swing state and it is a state that has voted Republican for more than 50 years.
It is unfortunate that Republicans are so willing to try to stop the recount of votes that they think is going to make it harder for them to win a statewide election.”
The lawsuit argues that Florida’s system of voting equipment was designed to make the vote count for a candidate but that a new election system is needed.
The state has been battling for months over allegations that it has not followed its own procedures and the court order will be used as evidence in the suit.
In a statement on Tuesday, McDonald said: “The Florida Democratic Committee, the state GOP, and a few elected officials have sought to make up this election, in an effort to stymie any possible recount.”
He said there was no evidence to suggest that any of these efforts had been successful.
