Florida’s secretary of state officially ordered machine recounts in three statewide elections — U. S. senator, governor and agriculture commissioner.
Nov. 10 (UPI) — Florida’s secretary of state on Saturday officially ordered machine recounts in three statewide elections — U. S. senator, governor and agriculture commissioner — after receiving unofficial election results from all 67 counties.
All three races were within a half-percentage point, triggering the machine recount, according to Secretary of State Ken Detzner. County election officials will feed ballots into machines and report the results by 3 p.m. Thursday. If the results are within a quarter-percentage-point margin or less, there will be a hand recount with results due by noon Nov. 18.
The Senate race is within .15 — with Gov. Rick Scott leading incumbent U. S. Sen. Bill Nelson by less than 13,000 votes out of more than 8 million votes — 4,098,107 to 4,085.545 — cast in Tuesday’s election. Scott was projected to win by around 57,000 votes on Tuesday night.
Scott spokesman Chris Hartline said in a report by the Orlando Sentinel the margin « is larger than any recount since 2000 has ever closed…. It’s time for Senator Nelson to accept reality and spare the state of Florida the time, expense and discord of a recount. »
In the race for governor, the margin is less than 34,000 votes or .41. Ron DeSantis, who resigned as a member of the U. S. House to run for governor, has 4,075,879 votes to Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum ‘s 4,4042,195.
For agriculture commissioner, Democrat Nikki Fried leads Matt Caldwell by only 4,674 votes, a 0.06-point margin that will also trigger a hand recount. On Tuesday night, Caldwell, a Republican in the state House, had the lead.
« I am proud, humbled, and honored to be elected the first female Commissioner of Agriculture in this state, » said Fried, an attorney. « One reason why I ran was to show girls like my nine-year-old niece that there are no barriers they cannot break — and nothing they cannot do. »
Since Tuesday night, the results in the three races had tightened as votes from two South Florida counties were added to the totals: Broward and Palm Beach. Those two counties were at the forefront of vote-counting in the 2000 presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore, ultimately decided in favor of Bush by 537 votes. Like in 2000, both sides have sought relief from the courts.
Republican officials, including Scott and Florida Sen. Rubio, have alleged wrongdoing. Rubio has criticized Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes in several tweets since Thursday, including one that said, « A U. S. Senate seat & a statewide cabinet officer are now potentially in the hands of an elections supervisor with a history of incompetence & of blatant violations of state & federal laws. »
On Thursday, Scott accused « left-wing activists in Broward County » of trying to steal the election for Nelson. And in a series of tweets on Friday, President Donald Trump accused the Democrats of attempting « Election Theft in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. »
On Saturday, he posted: « Trying to STEAL two big elections in Florida! We are watching closely! »
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Friday it was told by the Department of State, which is run by a Republican Scott appointee, that they had received « no allegation of criminal activity. » On Saturday morning, Scott said he was « encouraging every Florida Sheriff to watch for any violations and take appropriate action. »
