Fiery congressman Allen West refused to concede defeat Wednesday and has filed a lawsuit demanding a full recount of votes in his Florida district
after his efforts to get re-elected to the House of Representatives appeared to fall some 2,500 votes short.
The Republican’s lawsuit, filed in court in Palm Beach County, called for paper ballots to be counted and voting machines “impounded.”
A recount of early votes flipped the results from 2,000 in his favor to a win for Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy, West’s campaign manager Tim Edson alleged in a press release the day after the election.
“This race is far from decided and there is no rush to declare an outcome,” Edson said. “Ensuring a fair and accurate counting of all ballots is of the utmost importance.”
Though a winner has not officially been declared, with all precincts reporting, Murphy garnered 160,328 votes to West’s 157,872, a difference of 2,456, according to the official results
The state of Florida requires that election results be within 0.5 of a percentage point to trigger an automatic recount. The 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent result of Tuesday’s election, a 0.9 difference, is not close enough for that to happen.
