Program Success 8 November 2018
Andrew Gillum , Bill Nelson Mandatory Recounts Jay Connor Washington DC November 2018
With Multiple Races Too Close to Call , Florida Prepares for Mandatory Recounts
By Jay Connor The Root
According to the New York Times , Florida officials announced Saturday that with the elections for senator , governor and agriculture commissioner deemed too close to call , that mandatory machine recounts are in order .
Gov . Rick Scott , whose sizable lead has evaporated to less than 13,000 votes as ballots continue to be tallied , has cried foul . The target of his ire , Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes , is under fire for not only admitting to tabulating roughly a dozen rejected ballots , but failing to confirm if she has finished counting them all .
“ Three days after Election Day , the vote tally continues to change and Supervisor Snipes still refuses to explain where and how the new votes came to light ,” the campaign said in a statement . “ The public deserves a clear and direct answer .”
The deadline for the state ’ s 67 counties to hand in their unofficial results was today at noon .
As such , three statewide races are legally required to go to a recount since they remain under a 0.5 percentage point margin :
• The Senate race between Gov . Rick Scott ( R ) and Bill Nelson ( D )
• The governor ’ s race between Ron DeSantis ( R ) and Andrew Gillum ( D )
• The commissioner of agriculture race between Nikki Fried ( D ) and Matt Caldwell ( R )
The order to initiate the recount is expected this afternoon from Secretary of State Ken Detzner , an appointee of Mr . Scott . While tallies are expected to begin soon as well , starting with the larger Miami- Dade , Broward and Palm Beach counties . Smaller counties are expected to begin tomorrow .
Each county has until Thursday to run all of its ballots through counting machines again . While any race that remains within a margin of 0.25 of a percentage point or less will have until the 18th to conduct a manual recount .
Of important note , the odds of Gillum emerging triumphant in a recount appear to be low , as he currently trails DeSantis by 33,600 votes — or 0.41 percentage points .