Moving the goalposts.
Via Fox News:
Lawyers for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson on Monday filed a federal lawsuit that claims Florida is disenfranchising voters by not counting mail-in ballots it received after Election Day.
The lawsuit comes after 266 absentee ballots from the post office’s Opa-locka sorting facility arrived at Miami-Dade’s election office on Sunday. State law requires all mail ballots to be received when the polls close – which was 7 p.m. on November 6.
Nelson is locked in a fierce recount battle with Gov. Rick Scott.
Attorneys representing Scott and Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes also were in court Monday.
Scott, whose lead has narrowed over Nelson’s, filed lawsuits Sunday against local election officials, asking the judge to order police to impound voting machines and ballots when they are not in use. Specifically, his campaign filed lawsuits against Brenda Snipes and Susan Bucher, the election supervisors in Broward and Palm Beach counties. The emergency motions came after Scott claimed “unethical liberals” were trying to steal the election after late-developing returns narrowed his margins over Nelson and triggered a statewide recount.
On Monday, Circuit Chief Judge Jack Tuter said he saw no wrongdoing in the vote-counting and denied Scott’s request to seize voting machines. Tuter, who asked both sides to “ramp down the rhetoric,” said there is a need to reassure citizens that the integrity of the Florida recount is being protected. The judge did, however, agree to beef up security, including adding three more law enforcement officers to police recount efforts.
Juan Penalosa, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, accused Scott of “using his position to consolidate power by cutting at the very core of our democracy.”[…]
Scott campaign spokesman Chris Hartline accused Nelson’s attorney Marc Elias, a partner at Perkins Cole, of trying to raise money and stay relevant by demanding a recount.
“Maybe business was slow for Perkins Cole,” Hartline said in an email Monday. “Maybe the liberal base needed something to rally behind so fundraisers could get paid. Or maybe Marc Elias’ name just hadn’t been in the newspaper in a while.”
Perkins Cole represented former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and hired Fusion GPS to investigate Trump in 2016.