Allen West calls for a fuller recount
(CNN) – Rep. Allen West's campaign said it filed a complaint Tuesday in St. Lucie County, calling for the court to order a recount of all early ballots in his race for re-election.
While the Democratic candidate, Patrick Murphy, declared victory last week in the close contest for Florida's 18th Congressional District, West has yet to concede, citing the razor thin margin between the two.
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West, a first term Republican congressman and retired Army lieutenant colonel, and Patrick were locked in one of the country's most expensive races for a U.S. House seat, according to a ranking prepared by the Center for Responsive Politics. West raised $17 million through mid-October and Murphy brought in $3.7 million, according for Federal Election Commission records.
On Saturday, Murphy had a roughly 2,400-vote lead over West. The county's canvassing board, however, issued a partial recount Sunday. Since then, Murphy's lead has narrowed, and as of Tuesday evening, he held an advantage of 1,907 votes over West.
Still, the .58% margin falls outside of the .5% needed for an automatic recount.
The votes are considered unofficial until November 20, when election officials have said the results will be certified. But West's campaign argues the certification date should be postponed until all the early ballots are counted.
In a statement Tuesday, the campaign said only three days worth of early voting ballots were considered in the partial recount on Sunday-not the full early voting period of eight days.
Also in his request for a recount, West pointed to a substantial difference in the total number of votes reported Saturday compared to Tuesday–in fact, 799 fewer votes were listed on Tuesday than a few days prior.
Saying "nearly 1,000 votes disappeared from the count" without "any explanation," West's campaign said if the remaining early votes were to be recounted, "additional errors would be uncovered" and the final tally could be revised.
The Secretary of State's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening about West's complaint.
- CNN's Ashley Killough, Gregory Wallace, Kevin Bohn, and Robert Yoon contributed to this report.
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This guy should accept the vote of the people and just go away. The election should be certified by the state and West should not be seated. Why do only wacko rightwingers try this/ Lets make a new law that says he has to pay state costs and all candidate cost if he loses.and that will take care of wackos like him
I have a feeling that West is going to lose no matter what. He has been a problem to no end with accusing other members of the House being a problem. I hope that the citizens of his district realize he is not good enough to represent them in the House.
Time for Allen West to take a stand.....at a podium and concede!! The votes in question were recounted and while he did gain some ground on his challenger, Patrick Murphy, he still did not come within the .05% threshold (FL state law) necessary to initiate a statewide recount.
Now, upon what legal leg will Allen West now stand? It appears that he has none.
He's merely unwilling to admit defeat and now, the person who's anti-lawyer has lawyered-up to take his loss to court. So, not only is Allen West a sore loser, he's also a hypocrite!
Go West, young man, go West..........but they may not want him either. .
Man you lost get over It,all you doing Is making a Fool out of your self now.
Allen, give it up!
Typical of a playground bully. West is a sore loser.
West you are a loud mouth embarassment to blacks; full of hate and devisiveness.
Humility and decency are two words missing in West's vocabulary. What an embarrassment to the nation. Thank God he and Joe Walsh are gone....not even footnotes now....
This guy is the posterchild for self hate and being delusional.
This is the Norm Coleman debacle all over again. This guy needs to accept defeat so he can move on to his new job at Fox 'News'.
Desperation is ugly, West makes it uglier. West is without question the worst House member in history, as well as a disgrace to the military. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Give it up already!!!
West is counting on his people in the republican party to somehow "find" the votes to keep him in office, like they did in the 2000 election for George W. Bush. The state of Florida does not have a history of credible elections and has gotten worse since Rick Scott was elected governor. Florida and the nation would be better off without people like Allen West in Washington.
Six months from now:
Allen West: And I will continue to stand up for the principles of the Tea Party and the ideals of conservatism.
Stranger: That's great Mr West. By the way, I will have fries with that.
They did no recount! They simply did a re tabulation of the days the counter was not working properly.
The total number of both candidates prior to the absentee and provisional ballot before and after they were counted is outside of that need to trigger a recount. The elections laws are not going to change just because West wants them to for his election.
The only way this dude will sit down & be quiet is to do a Full recount! Problem w/that is he's counting on more votes for himself, but Murphy may also rack up more "unaccounted for" votes! I think Murphy is the winner & a full recount will prove it! The citzens of this nation are fed up w/GOT-Party extremism, divisive politics & catering to the uppermost echelon! West's rantings about muslims & communists aren't just ridiculous, but sound like he's in the grips of a "conspiracy theory" malady! Hence all the counting & recounting of votes!!
Stand your ground and fight.....Don't give up and let the fraud go unchallenged. This whole election was stolen....Keep fighting Mr. West.
Question: is he the same Allen West who risked the court-martial for the Article 32 investigation in 2003? Some people will never cease to amaze me. It seems that after retiring he received 2,000 letters and emails of moral support. Really?
Somebody should let him know that 2,000 is a ridiculous number.
CNN is very gentle to report the request of such a jes**r.
C'mon Cnn the " razor thin margin" is outside the legal limit that would enforce a re-count under florida law.
Also he is now asking not just for on disputed district he lost to be re-counted but all of them. Legally he cannot do that. Plus his outlandish comments in the past make him for me persona non grata in any political post.
Regards,
Hodgson.
Ask him to pay fr the recount.
We expected a demigod to go down gracefully?
The people have spoken. Allen West turned out to be as sorry a representative as I had said all along. Now he can spend more FULL TIME trying to discredit the President. West is a MORON just like Limbaugh said.
Hmmm, and if pigs had wings they could fly!
Please please, Allen West, can you go away? You are fired. we can have Trump call to tell you " you are fired" by your constituents. Go away, please please, you are rude, nasty and arrogant. Bye.... Allen West.