RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. – Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson has sued Palm Beach County and the Florida Secretary of State, asking for a hand recount of all ballots due to repeated machine failures during the recent recount.
The move comes hours after Susan Bucher, Palm Beach County's elections supervisor, told reporters Thursday that her office failed to meet the 3 p.m. deadline, despite her team's best efforts.
"We gave it everything we had," Bucher said minutes after the deadline passed.
All 67 counties were required to conduct machine recounts for the Florida governor, U.S. Senate and agriculture commissioner races, but Palm Beach County was the only one that failed to meet the deadline.
Bucher said Palm Beach County fell behind when the ballot-counting machines overheated Tuesday night.
Nelson's team claims ballots counted by broken machines should be considered "undervotes" and manually counted.
Bucher said she has long-complained about the antiquated machines Palm Beach County uses to count the ballots and was critical of the state for not doing anything about it.
"But the fact of the matter is that I inherited this old equipment," Bucher said. "We're trying to buy new equipment. I needed to comply with the law and when it does, I'll buy it."
She said her office was required by Florida law to send the originally reported numbers to the state.
Despite missing the deadline, Bucher said voters should feel confident in the results.
"We counted every vote and we uploaded our results and they are accurate," Bucher said.
When asked earlier in the day why there was nobody feeding the machines at the county's tabulation center overnight, Bucher said she sent her staff home to rest after several days of working around the clock.
"I need my expert team because this is a very technical process," Bucher said, warning that the county's odds of making the deadline were slim. "I can't have just anybody running this."