MIAMI – Two advocacy groups have called on Gov. Rick Scott to recuse himself from decisions involving the Florida recounts, which includes his own race for the U.S. Senate.
Scott, a Republican, is narrowly leading Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by 12,562 votes, a margin of 0.15 percentage points.
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"We request that you step back, release the reins of power and allow election officials to decide what tools of government should be employed to achieve the state’s paramount duty to fairly count each and every valid ballot," the letter by Common Cause and and the League of Women Voters of Florida states.
In neighboring Georgia, Republican gubernatorial nominee Brian Kemp resigned as secretary of state last week while the results of his election are being determined. Kemp leads Democrat Stacey Abrams by 59,000 votes, but Abrams says more votes are left to be counted. If the margin tightens, Kemp and Abrams could be forced into a runoff election.
In the letter to Scott, the groups took issue with the governor's charges that "unethical liberals" were trying to skew the election results in South Florida. State officials have said they have found no evidence of voter fraud in South Florida.
"You have intentionally politicized governance of the elections by publicly threatening a show of force -- calling for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the state’s highest law enforcement agency, to investigate 'rampant fraud' in South Florida when the FDLE and Department of State have indicated that there were no indications of fraud or criminal activity," the letter states.
McKinley Lewis, a spokesman for Scott, said the governor's office was reviewing the letter.