Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner ordered recounts for three election contests Saturday after unofficial results showed the races for Senate, governor, and agriculture commissioner within the margin to trigger a recount.
Vote numbers were displayed on the Florida secretary of state’s website soon after the noon deadline Saturday for county officials to submit unofficial vote totals to the state. Detzner, who is a Scott appointee, made the recount decision soon after.
This means there will be a protracted recount battle in the U.S. Senate race between Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Bill Nelson alongside the governor race between Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum and former Rep. Ron Desantis, R-Fla.
Scott’s margin over Nelson in the unofficial results is 12,562 votes, while Desantis has a 33,684-vote lead over Gillum in the hotly contested governor race.
Democrat Nikki Fried has a slim 5,326-vote lead over Matt Caldwell in the Florida agriculture commissioner race.
Unofficial results, including Broward County (!), are in:
Rick Scott (R) leads Bill Nelson by 0.15%
Ron DeSantis (R) leads Andrew Gillum by 0.41%
Nikki Fried leads (D) Matt Caldwell by 0.06%All within margin for recounts.
— Lulu Ramadan (@luluramadan) November 10, 2018
Machine vote results are due Thursday while hand recount tallies are due by Sunday Nov. 18. More than 8 million ballots were cast in Florida.
Any result below half a percentage point triggers an automatic recount, per state law. If the difference in votes is found to be less than .25 points, then a hand recount will ensue.
JUST IN — Florida Secretary of State orders full machine recount, due by Thursday. Scott leads in Senate race by 12,562 (.15%) pic.twitter.com/DOfdh902s1
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) November 10, 2018
Ballot counting issues have been reported in Broward County, a Democratic stronghold that played a pivotal role in the 2000 presidential election recount, and Palm Beach County.
The looming recount battle had generated a fierce backlash from Republicans, including President Trump.
Trump tweeted on Friday that Gillum conceded on Election Day “and now Broward County has put him ‘back into play.’ Bill Nelson conceded election – now he’s back in play!? This is an embarrassment to our Country and to Democracy.”
Gillum tweeted Saturday afternoon that he was “replacing” his concession with a call to count every vote.
I am replacing my earlier concession with an unapologetic and uncompromised call to count every vote.
— Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) November 10, 2018
Nelson never conceded in his race against Scott, who did declare victory.
