President Donald Trump has tweeted, questioning how “large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere" as he and Gov. Rick Scott continue to claim Florida's election is being stolen through fraud.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says there is no evidence to support such claims and some supervisors of elections are challenging the president and governor.
“If they have any—any—indication of evidence of any fraud they should bring it," Polk County Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards told reporters Monday morning.
"It's offensive, it's irresponsible and not only that but I think of all the thousands of workers all over Florida, these are volunteers from our community, these are your friends and my neighbors who wake up at the crack of dawn and work for a mere stipend just to protect our right to vote."
So why then are some vote totals changing?
10News elections analyst Susan MacManus says it's overseas, provisional and mail-in ballots that can be wind up being counted days after election night. It's part of the process that normally goes unnoticed when election margins aren't anywhere near as close as they are in the state's gubernatorial and U.S. Senate race.
It’s estimated there are still nearly 20,000 ballots mailed to Florida voters out of the country that could still be returned. Many of them are for people serving in the military. Those ballots, so long as they were postmarked by Election Day, can be received and counted up to 10 days after the election.
Provisional ballots, the product of Florida’s last recount rodeo in 2000, meant for individuals who forget to bring their ID to vote or who don't appear on the voter rolls even though they're registered, take a while to tally because they require the greatest scrutiny to verify whether each person is a legitimate voter.
While Election Day might seem like a single-day event, early voting, absentee voting and mail-in voting can extend counting well past when the last bottle of champagne is popped on election night.
So far, recounts statewide have mostly gone off without a hitch. "Human error" in Manatee County on Monday forced workers to start over and re-run a batch of ballots after a worker forgot to press an important button, according to WWSB.
"It's supposed to kick out undervotes, overvotes and blank ballots," said Manatee County supervisor of elections Michael Bennett. "We kicked out blank ballots and overvotes, but we didn't kick out the undervotes."
The error cost workers about five hours.
But the spotlight continues to glare brightest on Broward County where its supervisor of elections, Brenda Snipes, have been plagued by legitimate concerns for years.
Scott has repeatedly questioned the source of 70,000 or so ballots in Broward County he says didn't appear until after election night.
MacManus said the influx of votes is an anomaly in a county with a history of anomalies. But she says it's more likely because of Snipes waiting to scan mail-in ballots, rather than starting days before as is allowed.
"Snipes is not someone who would manufacture boxes of ballots to throw an election. She's simply incompetent," the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel editorial board wrote Friday.
While Snipes has been accused of not being as transparent as she should be about vote totals, FDLE and election overseers maintain there’s no indication that the votes being counted in the county are anything less than legitimate.
"I've worked here for around 15 years and I have to say this is the first time that this office or I have been under such attacks," Snipes told reporters Monday. "So, if we make mistakes, we own mistakes."
The question now is just what mistakes, if any, have been made. And more importantly, does it rise to fraud or sink to incompetence?
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the 10News app now.
Have a news tip? Email desk@wtsp.com, or visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.
