Republican Rick Scott has been declared the winner of the highly contested race to represent Florida in the US Senate, beating his rival by 10,033 votes, or by 0.12 percent
The recount of the ballots from the November 6 election showed that the former governor won 50.05 percent, while the three-term Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson got 49.93.
Florida midterms have been marred by accusations of fraud, cases of lost ballots and a recount after protest and public pressure.
Following the end of the recount, Nelson conceded defeat in the race against the Republican candidate.
The incredibly tight race in Florida was marred by scandals and controversies. Since the polls closed on Tuesday, Scott's once-solid lead almost completely evaporated as additional ballots were counted in Broward County and Palm Beach County.
The situation prompted Scott to sue Palm Beach County Election Supervisor Susan Busher, as well as Broward County Supervisor Brenda Snipes, alleging improper handling of ballots and possible vote-tampering. It also gave a rise to various rumors on social media, with some people saying that some ballots were destroyed or replaced with fake ones.
Scott’s lead over Nelson initially amounted to 0.25 percentage points, leading to a hand recount of ballots from tabulation machines. Meanwhile, a Florida judge sided with Scott in his lawsuits against Busher and Snipes, ordering them to turn over records for inspection – but Busher did not comply by saying it was physically “impossible”, thus sparking another wave of rumors.
President Donald Trump added fuel to the fire by interfering in the whole mess and accusing the Democrats of “stealing” Florida elections. He did not stop at that, though, as he continued to claim that both the governor and senator in Florida were tainted by foul play. His tweets sparked a backlash of their own as his critics rushed to accuse the president of “interfering in a lawful process to count ballots” and of spreading conspiracy theories.
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