*By Christian Smith*
While President Trump and Florida Gov. Rick Scott continue to claim the recount in three tight Florida races is rampant with abuse, state law enforcement authorities say they have no concrete allegation of voter fraud to investigate.
"There is no allegation of fraud, and there's a legal definition that you have to meet in order for it to be voter fraud," Ana Ceballos, politics reporter for the USA Today Network in Florida, told Cheddar.
Scott, who is running for the U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, has called on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate claims of voter fraud. The state's Attorney General, Republican Pam Bondi, echoed Scott's calls for an investigation, but FDLE has maintained that there are is no evidence to justify that step.
A mandatory machine recount was triggered in Florida's races for U.S. Senate, governor, and agriculture commissioner due to the razor-thin margins in those results.
According to unofficial results from Florida's counties on Saturday, Scott led Nelson in the senate race by about 12,500 votes, or about .15 percent of the total vote.
The race for governor isn't quite as close. Republican Ron DeSantis led Democrat Andrew Gillum by nearly 34,000 votes, or .41 percent.
The deadline for officials to complete the machine-recount is Thursday.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/usa-todays-ana-ceballos-discusses-the-controversies-surrounding-the-florida-recount).
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Aug. 23, 2019.
The Democratic presidential candidate from Vermont drew praise from activists and advocates after revealing his $16.3 trillion plan to combat climate change.
Planned Parenthood is standing by its decision to withdraw from the federal government’s family planning program rather than comply with the Trump administration’s new rule barring referrals to doctors who provide abortions.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019.
President Trump on Wednesday reversed his position on lowering payroll taxes to bolster economic growth, telling reporters that “we don’t need it.” The reversal comes as a growing number of economists have warned that a recession in the U.S. is on the horizon.
The new rule, ending the so-called Flores agreement, will allow officials to hold families in detention indefinitely for the duration of immigration cases, which could be much longer than the current 20-day limit.
The minutes released from the July Federal Reserve meeting showed that the interest rate cut was a "mid-cycle adjustment to policy."
China's e-commerce giant is delaying its potential $15 billion listing in Hong Kong because of the region's political instability, according to the Reuters news service.
On World Humanitarian Day, the United Nations honored women aid worker for the vital role they play in emergency situations, and the increasing risk female aid workers put themselves in to help others.
Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York who co-sponsored the universal background check bill in February slammed President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the lack of movement on gun reform.
