Who Gets the Last Word in a Disputed Senate Race? The Senate

[ZiprHead]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/us/florida-recount-senate-scott-nelson.html

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Amid the blur of lawsuits and noise around the recount in Florida’s Senate race lies a possible outcome that could be the ultimate twist: Senator Bill Nelson may not win the election, even if he wins the election.

That is because the Constitution says that the ultimate arbiter of who gets a Senate seat is the Senate itself — not election officials or the courts.

That would not seem to bode well for the Democrats or their incumbent, Mr. Nelson. Though he trails his Republican opponent, Gov. Rick Scott, the margin has dwindled to about 13,000 votes; Mr. Nelson hopes to make that up in the recount and take the lead.

If that were to happen, though, it is not unthinkable that Republicans would consider using their majority power in the Senate to refuse to seat Mr. Nelson and to give the seat to Mr. Scott instead — especially considering how he and his party have repeatedly insisted, without offering evidence, that the ballot review process has been riddled with fraud and misconduct.

Can anybody see McConnell NOT doing something like this?

 

[skepticalbip]

A swing of more than 13,000 votes between the original count and a recount would indicate some serious problems with the Florida counting system far outside the norm. The norm for vote count differences between the two counts is a few hundred votes at most.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

A swing of more than 13,000 votes between the original count and a recount would indicate some serious problems with the Florida counting system far outside the norm. The norm for vote count differences between the two counts is a few hundred votes at most.

Exactly. A swing that huge would be unprecedented, so I’m less worries about Nelson getting shafted by the system.

 

[Keith&Co.]

But...but.... their side has been chortling 'she list, get over it' for two years. Is it now, 'he won, get over it?'

 

[BH]

Why do Floridians want Rick Scott for anything? His company got busted for taking more money than they were supposed to aand had to pay it back plus fines. Geesh. American voters are stupid.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Why do Floridians want Rick Scott for anything? His company got busted for taking more money than they were supposed to aand had to pay it back plus fines. Geesh. American voters are stupid.

Ya, but Hillary Clinton would be really annoyed if he wins. That's a lot more important than everything else.