Scott raises $1.4 million amid Florida recount

The Senate campaign of Gov. Rick Scott (R) announced on Thursday that he raised more than $1.4 million amid Florida’s heated recount.

Scott and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) are locked in a too-close-to-call Senate race as Florida’s 67 counties approach a Thursday deadline of 3 p.m. ET to complete a machine recount in three statewide races.

“I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has volunteered time, donated resources and worked so hard to support our campaign over the past seven months, and now in the recount process,” Scott said in a Thursday statement.

{mosads}Once the machine recount is completed, a hand recount could be triggered if the candidates are within a margin of 0.25 percentage points. Scott currently leads Nelson by only 0.15 percentage points, making it likely the race will be headed to a manual recount.

Scott and Nelson have been engaging in an escalating litigation battle as the candidates lob accusations at one another.

Scott and other Republicans, including President Trump, have accused local election officials of engaging in voter fraud, with the focus on Broward and Palm Beach counties, which have large concentrations of Democratic voters.

But Florida’s secretary of state and state law enforcement agency have found no credible claims of fraud.

While Scott accuses Nelson of trying to steal the election, the Democratic senator and his allies have claimed that the Republican governor wants to prevent legally cast votes from being counted.

Even with the recount underway, Scott attended the new members orientation in Washington, D.C., this week, including getting his photo taken as a new member.

On Wednesday, Scott announced he’d recuse himself from certifying Florida’s election results. The deadline for certification is Nov. 20.

A federal judge on Thursday ruled that voters whose mail-in and provisional ballots were initially rejected due to signature issues will have two additional days to fix those problems.

Nelson’s team applauded the ruling, but Scott and Republican allies filed an appeal on Thursday challenging that decision.