If Sen. Bill Nelson’s chances of defeating Gov. Rick Scott in the ongoing recount of Florida’s Senate race looks tough, Andrew Gillum’s shot at becoming governor may be impossible.
Gillum, the Democratic mayor of Tallahassee, is trailing Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis by 33,683 votes after a machine recount concluded Thursday in the unresolved race.
The difference of 0.41 percent is narrow, but not narrow enough to warrant a manual recount or any further evaluation of the ballots already counted.
But Gillum has yet to concede.
The charismatic GIllum, who ran on a progressive agenda and drew national attention during the race, continues to post Facebook messages to supporters about “our path forward” and the need to count all votes.
“A vote denied is justice denied,” Gillum said in a statement. “The State of Florida must count every legally cast vote.”
Gillum pointed to what he said “are tens of thousands of votes that have yet to be counted.”
There are likely 7,000 ballots statewide that were tossed out due to mismatched signatures and military ballots can be submitted up until Friday.
Gillum could choose to file a lawsuit over the results, but has so far stayed out of court, where Nelson has filed several lawsuits in an effort to count more ballots. A judge extended the deadline to Saturday at 5 p.m. after a lawsuit was filed by Nelson, who trails Scott by 12,500 votes in his now-unlikely quest to win a fourth term in the Senate.
Gillum has urged voters to contact local election officials if their mail-in ballots were denied.
Florida’s Department of State will certify the results on Tuesday, which will mark the official end of the race.
DeSantis is quietly preparing for the governor’s mansion and has stayed quiet about the race.
A spokesman for DeSantis did not respond to a request for a comment about the state of the race.
