Key Florida Senate race to see a second recount

In gubernatorial race, Republican candidate looks set to win

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, along with wife Casey. File

Votes will be recounted by hand in the Florida race for the U.S. Senate, a bitterly fought contest between the Democratic candidate, the incumbent Bill Nelson, and his opponent, the Republican Governor Rick Scott.

Under Florida law, a margin of 0.25% or less between candidates requires a Statewide hand-count of ballots and a margin of 0.5% or less requires an electronic recount. Mr Nelson lagged behind Mr. Scott by 12,600 votes, or 0.15%, after a machine recount concluded on Thursday.

Republicans, however, were on Friday set to win the widely watched gubernatorial race between their candidate Ron DeSantis, a former Congressman and lawyer for the U.S. armed forces; and the Democratic and progressive African-American candidate, Andrew Gillum, who is the Mayor of Tallahassee. It appeared that Mr. DeSantis had squeaked past Mr. Gillum with a margin of 0.41% as per the electronic recount — not making the 0.25% threshold for a second (manual ) recount.

Mr. Gillum, who had originally conceded to Mr. DeSantis on the evening of November 6, had later retracted his statement in the hope that a recount could get him ahead of his Republican opponent.

Counties miss deadline

The first recount has been rife with problems, including from some of Florida’s largest counties — Palm Beach, Broward and Hillsborough — having to commit to their old tallies as they did not make the Thursday afternoon deadline. Broward County missed the deadline by two minutes. Tampa Bay decided not to turn in its count because the total number of ballots was 846 fewer than after the first count.

Some of this week’s problematic counties have been in the news for electoral issues since the 2000 Bush vs. Gore presidential race that was won by George W. Bush on the back of a win in Florida. Republicans and Democrats had filed several lawsuits across the State over ballot counting and voter suppression since the November 6 midterms. ‘

“A vote denied is justice denied — the State of Florida must count every legally cast vote,” Mr. Gillum said on Thursday, after reports said that he had gained one additional vote against Mr. DeSantis after the recount. It is unclear what Mr. Gillum’s next steps will be but he has not conceded the Governor race. Florida is a key swing State (can be won by either the Republicans or Democrats in, say, a presidential election) and the high stakes Senator and Governor races were marked by bitterness and name-calling.

Hand recounts for the Senate race will have to be completed by noon Florida time on Sunday.