More Madness In The Allen West Recount

Twitter's wingnuts are screaming bloody murder at this writing after Florida's St. Lucie County failed to finish their court-ordered recount by today's noon deadline, prompting Patrick Murphy's campaign to claim final victory over Rep. Allen West.

Under Florida law, the final certified results were due from all of the state’s 67 supervisors of elections today. If the results do not arrive on time, the certified unofficial results submitted last Sunday stand. Those results have Murphy winning by 0.58 percent. A spread of less than 0.5 percent would have triggered an automatic recount.  “Today at noon, it became clear Patrick Murphy will be officially certified as the next congressman from the 18th Congressional District,” Anthony Kusich, Murphy for Congressman campaign manager, said in a prepared statement issued around 12:40 p.m. “The voters have spoken and Patrick Murphy is once again the clear winner. It is beyond time to put this campaign behind us and put the interests of the people of the Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches first.”

The Palm Beach Post reports that West's supporters have charged into the St. Lucie election office screaming, "Count our votes!" West's lawyers have raced to a judge's office to demand an injunction against the state deadline. Numerous West supporters are claiming on Twitter that the county deliberately sabotaged a tabulation machine in order to miss the deadline. More on this later today as the story develops.

UPDATE: Election officials in St. Lucie are now saying that the deadline was met and that Patrick Murphy actually gained votes in the recount.

Murphy campaign senior advisor Eric Johnson was quick to reaffirm victory. "As far as we're concerned, this puts an end to it," Johnson said. "The West people demanded a recount. They got that retabulation and Patrick Murphy gained a margin of 242 votes. "This election is over," Johnson added. Mowery said the final count was 65,841 votes for Murphy and 52,704 for West. The results still are unofficial. "We are still evaluating how to handle this," West campaign manager Tim Edson said. "It's a unique case."