The Democrats' Top Vote-Getter

Election lawyer Marc Elias is already preparing for a 2020 fight in America’s most important political battleground.

- Bill Allison

It never looked great for Bill Nelson. The three term Democratic senator from Florida and his lawyer, Marc Elias, waged a bitter post-election battle against the outgoing governor, Rick Scott. Despite two recounts and important courtroom victories for Nelson, Scott will join fellow Florida Republican Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate in January.

Nonetheless, Elias has reason to be pleased. The man labeled the Democrats’ “best Election stealing lawyer” in a tweet by President Trump suffered a rare loss, yet he may have boosted his party’s chances in Florida in 2020, when the perennial photo- finish battleground state could again determine the next president.

For 11 tense days, Elias pulled every possible legal lever to get absentee, mismarked, and irregular ballots counted. He got a federal appeals court, for example, to uphold a district court decision giving voters and canvassers nearly two weeks beyond the original Nov. 5 deadline to verify signatures on mail-in ballots, a precedent that may prove useful to Democratic candidates in future close fights. Elias called the decision “a victory for the people of Florida and for the Nelson campaign as we pursue our goal of making sure every legal ballot is counted.”