With the prospect of vote recounts looming, two of the high profile U.S. midterm races — for State governor and a Senator from the State — continue to stay in focus even after the voting day.
On Thursday night, just over 36,000 votes separated Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for Governor, and Republican Ron DeSantis, the presumptive Governor, a 0.44% vote share difference, just under the 0.5% margin, requiring a statewide recount.
Florida law requires a statewide (machine) recount when the margin of victory is less than 0.5% and mandates a manual recount when that margin is less than 0.25%.
Mr. Gillum had conceded to Mr. DeSantis on Tuesday night.
“Since that time, it has become clear there are many more uncounted ballots than was originally reported,” his spokeswomen Johanna Cervone said in a statement.
Also heading to recount is the Senate race between Republican Rick Scott (currently the Governor) and incumbent Senator Democrat Bill Nelson.
Mr. Nelson was trailing behind Mr. Scott by just over 15,000 votes or a margin of 0.18%.
Central issues
At the centre of the issue are Florida’s second and third largest counties — Boward and Palm Beach.
Boward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes, an elected official herself, has been in the news before with regard to the electoral process, including in May this year, when a court ruled her office improperly destroyed ballots in a 2016 Democratic primary.
Democrats for their part have raised issues with the design of ballots in Boward County which, they say, could be a factor contributing to systematic “undervoting”(choices are not made in all races on the ballot).
Bower and Palm Beach counties were both among the recount in Florida which George W. Bush won by 537 votes, enabling him to win the electoral college vote and Presidency.
On Thursday night, Mr. Scott accused the Democrats, without evidence, of trying to “steal” the elections and that there was fraud in both counties and the Republicans filed two lawsuits on Thursday — one against Ms. Snipes and the other against her Palm Beach counterpart, Susan Bucher.
“The goal here is to see that all the votes in Florida are counted and counted accurately,” the democratic candidate’s spokesman, Dan McLaughlin, said in a statement, adding: “Rick Scott’s action appears to be politically motivated and borne out of desperation.”
Georgia’s race
Georgia’s Governor race is among those that are still open as Democratic candidate Stacy Abrams filed a lawsuit to have all absentee ballots that arrive before the end of Friday counted.
Ms. Abrams’ is hoping the margin separating her from Republican opponent Brian Kemp will be small enough to mandate a run-off. If she wins, Ms. Abrams will be the U.S.’s first female African American Governor.
