So even if Nelson were to swing 10 times as many votes in this recount as Gore did in 2000, he would still come up short. Democrats know that recounting the existing votes is unlikely to change the result. So Democrats have filed a series of lawsuits asking courts to change Florida elections laws after the fact. The result would be that they can count ineligible votes in the hope that these will provide the margin necessary to overcome Scott’s lead. For example, Florida statute mandates that, with the exception of overseas and military voters, vote-by-mail ballots are counted only if they are “received by the supervisor of elections not later than 7 p.m. on the day of the election.” But Nelson has sued demanding that mail ballots that arrived after the 7 p.m. deadline to be counted as part of the recount.

Similarly, Florida law says mail and provisional ballots are counted only if the signatures on them match the signatures that elections offices have on record. If there is a signature mismatch, the voter is notified and can “complete and submit an affidavit in order to cure the vote-by-mail ballot until 5 p.m. on the day before the election” (emphasis added). But Democrats are asking a judge to throw that law out and count ballots with signatures that don’t match the voter signature on file.