Patrick Murphy wins again, Allen West still won't give up

Rep.-elect Patrick Murphy arrives in D.C. for orientation. Allen West has been clamoring for a full recount of the early vote in St. Lucie County, Florida, the county he lost to rival Patrick Murphy. He got what he wanted'the full recount of early votes'with the end result being an increase in the vote count for Murphy.

A recount Saturday and Sunday of more than 37,000 St. Lucie County ballots from all eight days of early voting had been demanded by partisans of Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, after Murphy's narrow victory Nov. 6. Results of that recount, announced shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday by St. Lucie County Canvassing Board member Tod Mowery, placed Murphy farther ahead of West than before the two-day effort began. The results killed West campaign hopes the recount would narrow the gap to less than 0.5 percent and trigger an automatic recount of all votes under state law. [...]

Mowery said the final St. Lucie count was 65,841 votes for Murphy and 52,704 for West. Murphy picked up 274 votes, according to Mowery, while West gained 32 votes. The results are unofficial.Murphy said his campaign has been confident since Nov. 6 election night, when returns showed him leading West by a slim margin.

But West's campaign said there were irregularities in balloting on the first three days of early voting in St. Lucie County. West partisans were unhappy when Walker chose instead to recount three different days on Nov. 11.

West is still refusing to concede, and is still implying that he thinks there was fraud in the vote and that he could decide to fight on.

"Since election day, we have been working for a fair and accurate accounting of the election outcome in which voters can put their full trust," West said. "We will review the results of today's recount and the other available data to determine how to proceed."

On top of that, he's got a cadre of supporters who have been filing motions on their own, apart from the campaign. Two attorneys who have been active West volunteers, Jeffrey Scott Shapiro of Boca Raton and Mark Young of West Palm Beach, have petitioned the state for a recount of the entire districts. An active St. Lucie County Republican, Beverly Joy Hires, has petitioned the state for a full recount of that county.

West has until November 30 to file suit to contest the election. His team is sounding pretty aggressive on that front, attacking the supervisor of elections in St. Lucie County, Gertrude Walker:

Chris LaCivita, a top West strategist, said in a Sunday interview that Walker had badly botched the vote-counting process, giving the campaign ammunition to use.

'Each day that Gertrude Walker and her collection of idiots continues to mismanage, misappropriate, and not do their job just provides us with more evidence to use in an election contest and makes it more likely that we will do that,' LaCivita said.

That sounds like a campaign that's going to drag this out as long as they possible can.

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