Florida elections: Machine recount completed. Manual recount to start for Senate and Agriculture Commissioner races.
Glenna Milberg of WPLG Local 10 (Miami) tweeted the latest numbers:
#FloridaRecount machine recount results official and posted:
Senate race:
Rick Scott over Bill Nelson 12,603 votes (0.15%)
AgricultureCommish:
Nikki Fried over Matt Caldwell 5,307 votes (0.06%)
Let the hand recounting begin …
Tweet:
GOVERNOR RACE
The machine recount for the Governor race is also completed. Republican Ron DeSantis kept his lead at 0.41% over Gillum:
– DeSantis new numbers = 4,075,445
– Gillum new numbers = 4,041,762
So DeSantis leads Gillum by 33,683…that’s 0.41%. No manual recount required.
Republican Ron DeSantis is now Florida’s Governor-elect.
BUT GILLUM STILL WANTS TO WIN
It seems Gillum might go to the courts. Remember, Democrat lawyer Marc Elias said, “We are here to win it.”
USA Today: With Florida recount over, Andrew Gillum’s last chance to become governor rests with the courts:
WASHINGTON – Andrew Gillum will have to rely on the courts if he has any chance to become Florida’s first black governor.
A recount of more than 8 million ballots that ended Thursday afternoon confirmed that Republican Ron DeSantis beat the Democratic Tallahassee mayor in the nationally watched race that galvanized progressives across the country.
[…]
But Gillum is not conceding. He and his supporters believe there is still a path to victory: lawsuits that could add more votes in support of him.
“A vote denied is justice denied — the State of Florida must count every legally cast vote,” Gillum said in a statement after the recount totals were released. “As today’s unofficial reports and recent court proceedings make clear, there are tens of thousands of votes that have yet to be counted. We plan to do all we can to ensure that every voice is heard in this process. Voters need to know that their decision to participate in this election, and every election, matters. It is not over until every legally casted vote is counted.”
The deadline for the recount was 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Thursday but Palm Beach County, a Democratic stronghold, did not complete its recount. It was the only one of Florida’s 67 counties that failed to do so. A lawsuit filed by Democrats could find more votes for Gillum there, for example.
Timeline for Reporting and Certification of Election Results https://floridaelectionwatch.gov/Timeline
The timeline for county canvassing boards to report results, and to conduct any possible recounts for federal, state, and multicounty races ordered by the Secretary of State, are below. For more information about recounts, visit Timeline for Reporting and Certification of 2018 General Election Results.
* Tuesday, November 6, 2018: Preliminary Election Night Returns (all early voting and all tabulated vote-by-mail results) are due no later than 7:30 PM in the respective county’s time zone and in 45-minute increments (precinct election results) thereafter until all results (except for provisional ballots) are completely reported. Since Florida has two time zones (Central and Eastern), preliminary election night returns will not be released until 8:00 PM Eastern Time.
* Saturday, November 10, 2018: Unofficial Returns are due no later than noon on the 4th day after the General Election. The Secretary of State will order a machine recount if the 1st set of unofficial returns indicates that by a margin of ½ of 1% or less of the total votes cast, a candidate for office was eliminated or defeated, a judicial candidate for retention was retained or not retained, or an issue was approved or rejected.
* Thursday, November 15, 2018: If a machine recount is ordered, Second Unofficial Returns are due no later than 3:00 PM on the 9th day after the General Election. The Secretary of State will order a manual recount if the 2nd set of unofficial returns indicates that by a margin of ¼ of 1% or less of the total votes cast, a candidate for office was eliminated or defeated, a judicial candidate for retention was retained or not retained, or an issue was approved or rejected.
* Sunday, November 18, 2018: Official Returns are due no later than noon on the 12th day after the General Election.
The Elections Canvassing Commission meets on Tuesday, November 20, 2018 at 9:00 AM to certify the Official Returns for federal, state, multicounty and district offices and constitutional amendments/revisions.
