Florida’s election recount is scheduled to finish up Thursday afternoon, but for one county it will be “nearly impossible,” according to the New York…
Florida’s election recount is scheduled to finish up Thursday afternoon, but for one county it will be “nearly impossible,” according to the New York Times, to meet the 3 p.m. deadline. Officials are saying that Palm Beach County’s tabulation equipment has come up short “a significant number” of ballots for the final Senate tally.
The state is in the middle of an intense machine recount for three key races — those for the positions of governor, senator, and agriculture commissioner — and nearly a dozen lawsuits have been filed in efforts to extend deadlines, count rejected mail ballots, and impound equipment.
One hearing was held in federal court Thursday morning, in an effort by the Democratic Party to get the recount deadlines extended. Tallahassee Federal District Court Judge Mark E. Walker stumped the lawyers with one question: “Would it be legal to proceed with recount results that are missing one county?”
“There is no constitutional right to have your vote counted a second or a third time,” Mohammad Omar Jazil told the court. Jazil is a lawyer for the Florida secretary of state.
Palm Beach County, whose equipment does not allow for more than one race to be counted at a time, is the only county not expected to meet Thursday’s 3 p.m. deadline. They chose to put priority on recounting the first race listed on the ballot — the contest for Senate between Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson and Republican Governor Rick Scott, who leads by a little over 12,000 votes.
Decades-old voting machines have literally overheated in Palm Beach County, Florida, giving incorrect totals and forcing a recount of 174,000 votes.
Florida is recounting 8 million ballots after three crucial races were too close to call. pic.twitter.com/hxF4WjXLor
— AJ+ (@ajplus) November 14,2018
After the machines overheated earlier this week, almost 200,000 votes had to be recounted. It wasn’t until after the mechanical failure was corrected — and the machines were restarted — that a second problem arose. According to Palm Beach County elections supervisor Susan Bucher, entire boxes of votes were not tabulated, and now the totals don’t add up.
Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher says “the likelihood is slim” when asked if they will be able to meet the machine recount deadline today in high-stakes Florida election recounts. https://t.co/2fDjnUfO9t pic.twitter.com/EJRcRpqzkS
— ABC News (@ABC) November 15,2018
Clearly gearing up for manual recounts in Palm Beach County. pic.twitter.com/Pxwk8SqCHg
— Frances Robles (@FrancesRobles) November 15,2018
BREAKING: #Florida judge allows voters who were notified of mismatched signatures on their ballots after Nov. 5th the chance to correct it by Saturday at 5pm. https://t.co/OxLmPkg6LX #News6 pic.twitter.com/VqNRSoBzbw
— Mike DeForest (@DeForestNews6) November 15,2018
Lauren Schenon, a spokeswoman for Rick Scott’s campaign, said in a statement that they would be “immediately appealing” the decision, citing that the ruling only applies to a small amount of people who received late notifications about their rejected signatures.
“As we near the machine recount deadline this afternoon, it has become clear to everyone (except Bill Nelson) that Senator-elect Scott’s 12,000+ vote lead truly is ‘insurmountable,’” Schenon said.
With over two-thirds of the machine recount completed, our margin of victory has grown. It’s time for @SenBillNelson to end this recount.
— Rick Scott (@ScottforFlorida) November 15,2018
Tallahassee Governor Andrew Gillum trails behind former Republican congressman Ron DeSantis by 30,000 votes in the race for governor, which he is not expected to recover when the recount results are released on Thursday afternoon.
