[POLITICO] Sen. Bill Nelson has run out of time, run out of favorable court rulings and is about to officially run out of votes.After losing to Gov. Rick Scott on Election Day, losing after an automatic recount and appearing to not make up the gap following a manual recount Friday, Nelson’s campaign was dealt a mortal blow later that evening by U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who crushed the Democrat’s last major hope by upholding a Florida law that forbids county election offices from counting vote-by-mail ballots received after 7 p.m. Election Day.
"It’s done. But it was done before today. This was a total Hail Mary," said a top Democrat involved in Nelson’s campaign who didn’t want to speak publicly before the Democratic Party icon conceded defeat to one of the party's most-hated rivals.
The night before, Walker had rejected yet another Nelson lawsuit concerning standards for divining voter intent in manual recounts, and he refused to extend the deadlines of the recount.