Hand Recount Ordered In Florida U.S. Senate Race

Florida recount

The state of Florida has ordered its first-ever manual hand recounting of votes cast for the race for Florida's disputed U.S. Senate seat where about 12,600 votes separate Democrat incumbent Bill Nelson and Republican Rick Scott. 

A manual hand recount for Florida's governor's race was was not issued. Congressman Ron DeSantis (R) has so far maintained his advantage over Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) in the recount so far. 

The five-day machine recount of more than 8.3 million ballots cast in the Nov. 6 elections wrapped up today with the Palm Beach County's election supervisor announcing that their office would not be able to finish the machine recount for any of the three statewide races still in question. Palm Beach County would continue with a manual recount starting at 4 p.m. EST. The county's reported results on election night will be added to the recount result from other counties in the state. 

Florida's Secretary of State, Ken Detzner, ordered Florida's hand recount of votes Thursday afternoon for the U.S. Senate Race and the race for the state's agriculturial commissioner between Nicole "Nikki" Fried, and Matt Caldwell. 

On Thursday,  Judge Mark Walker of the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee ruled that 4,000 voters must be given an extra two days to resolve issues regarding their signatures to have their ballots counted. The decision affects those Floridians who cast their ballot by mail or provisional ballot, but their signature did not match what was on file. 

Florida law requires a machine recount for any races separated by one half of one percentage point or less. The race for the U.S. Senate seat, the governor's race and the Agricultural commissioner's race all fell within the margin of error when election supervisors submitted their unofficial results last Saturday. 

A manual hand recount is ordered when the margin of difference in votes falls within one quarter of one percentage point. 

Photo: Getty Images


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