The highly-anticipated midterm elections had many history-making races, but there are still some that have yet to be called. Florida secretary of state, Ken Detzner, ordered a machine recount on Saturday for the three closest races, according to the Associated Press. Officials will now start recounting votes to confirm the results of Florida’s U.S. Senate races, gubernatorial race, and agricultural commissioner race.
According to Florida state law, a machine recount takes place if the margin of victory is under 0.5 percent. A manual recount happens if it’s less than 0.25 percent. The results for the U.S. Senate seat gave Republican Gov. Rick Scott a 0.15 percent lead over Democratic Sen. incumbent Bill Nelson. It would roughly be around 12,500 votes, CNN reports. The results for the gubernatorial race showed Republican Ron DeSantis with a 0.41 percent lead, which is around 34,000 votes, over Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum. And Democrat Nikki Fried had a .06 percent lead or 5,300 votes over Republican Matt Caldwell for agricultural commissioner.
Bill Nelson: “Since Tuesday, the gap has shrunk from roughly 60,000 votes to about 12,500 – the margin has reduced by 78 percent and is now roughly .15 percent. We have every expectation the recount will be full and fair.” pic.twitter.com/rP3nH5p2OO
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 10, 2018
Each machine recount is due at 3 p.m. on Thursday, and if the results are under 0.25 percent, it goes to a hand recount. Already the U.S. Senate race and agricultural commissioner meet the requirement. The hand recount could take longer, but are technically due at 12 p.m. on Sunday Nov. 18.
Nelson had already called for a recount, despite push back from Scott to concede. “We believe when every legal ballot is counted, we’ll win this election,” Nelson said to CNN. If Scott does officially win, the Republicans would expand their already 51-majority. He’s narrowly leading as of right now.
UPDATE: With 100% reporting (some overseas ballots outstanding) Scott leads by about 12,500 votes out of 8.1 million cast.
The margin is 0.15% which means a machine recount is required under Florida law
If the margin remains under 0.25% a manual recount will follow pic.twitter.com/Y2uEaOnJcF
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) November 10, 2018
Scott also claimed there was “rampant” election fraud — but did not provide evidence to support his allegations. He called for an investigation and even accused liberals of trying to steal the election. President Trump agreed with Scott’s accusations, accusing Broward County election officials of falsifying votes for Democrats.
“Rick Scott was up by 50,000+ votes on Election Day, now they ‘found’ many votes and he is only up 15,000 votes,” Trump tweeted. “‘The Broward Effect.’ How come they never find Republican votes?”
Gillum also had conceded to DeSantis but withdrew it on Saturday, following Florida secretary of state’s announcement.
You’ll have to wait a bit longer to know who’ll win, but the stakes for each outcome is high. Whatever happens in Florida will definitely have huge consequences on the future of not only the state but the country.