Florida Recount Lawsuit: Hillary Clinton Beat Donald Trump, Plaintiffs Allege

LEON COUNTY, FL — Florida’s 29 electoral votes belong to Democrat Hillary Clinton, not Republican Donald Trump. That’s according to a recently filed lawsuit that names everyone from Trump himself to Gov. Rick Scott and the state’s 29 Republican presidential electors defendants.

Alleging illegal votes, “pervasive malfunctioning of electronic voting machines” and hacking, the three plaintiffs, all Central Florida residents, are asking a Leon County judge to order a full statewide paper ballot hand count. The suit was filed Monday, Dec. 5.

The plaintiffs insist that "had the votes been counted properly, Hillary Clinton would have prevailed in Florida and received the 29 Florida Electoral Votes." While the suit alleges widespread voting problems, the state's Division of Elections contends there were only "minor" issues during the Nov. 8 election.

The lawsuit comes as recounts are under way in several states following Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s request. The recounts in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were requested after a prominent group of election attorneys and computer scientists, including University of Michigan computer science professor J. Alex Halderman, claimed to have uncovered “persuasive evidence” that the election results in the three battleground states could have been hacked. President-elect Donald Trump won all three states by slim margins. In Michigan, the difference between Trump and Clinton was only 10,704 votes.

Florida has not been targeted by Stein’s recount movement, but the Leon County plaintiffs think a re-examination of the outcome is necessary. They even included Trump’s own words as evidence to support their request:

Defendant Donald J. Trump stated in a tweet dated November 27, 2016 that he won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.

The suit also raises the specter that Russian hackers or even ISIS may have tampered with the election process. Both entities, the suit alleges, had the "desire, and technical ability to penetrate and alter our election system, thereby modifying the results for their own agenda. Only by determining the actual result by a full hand count of the paper ballots can this potential disaster be averted,” the suit contends.

While the suit has been filed, even the attorney representing the trio of plaintiffs admits it’s a long shot that it will be acted upon before the Electoral College meets Dec. 19.

“They can ignore it entirely,” Clint Curtis, attorney for the plaintiffs, was quoted by the Tallahassee Democrat as saying.

Hearing dates have not yet been set.

Trump beat Clinton in the Sunshine State by more than 112,000 votes.

A full copy of the suit can be found on the Leon County Clerk of the Courts website.

Patch editor Beth Dalby contributed to this story.

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