Recount Likely in Florida’s Senate, Governor Races

(CN) - Florida's midterm election season continues as the races for governor and U.S. Senate appear to be heading for a recount.

As Broward and Palm Beach counties continued counting votes, Republican Governor Rick Scott's lead over incumbent Democratic Seantor Bill Nelson shrank by tens of thousands of votes.

Currently, Scott has 17,000 more votes than his Democratic opponent. Nelson hinted at a recount on election night and never conceded.

As of Thursday, Broward County had not finished counting votes cast early or cast by mailed. Palm Beach still had to tally all early voting results. Those counties trended Democratic on Election Day, which could trim Scott's lead.

In addition, several counties have not counted provisional ballots or those sent in by military personnel serving overseas. Voters who used provisional ballots lean Democratic while military men and women tend to vote Republican.

The counties must submit their unofficial results by Saturday afternoon.

The possibility of tens of thousands of uncounted ballots caught the attention of the Democratic candidate for governor, Andrew Gillum, who conceded to former Republican congressman Ron DeSantis on Tuesday night.

Gillum's campaign released a statement on Thursday, signaling they are watching the new totals closely.

Nelson and Gillum already hired attorneys to help them through the recount process.

Currently, DeSantis has 39,000 more votes than Gillum – a margin of 0.47 percent.

Races closer than 0.50 percent automatically trigger a machine recount, according to the Department of Elections. For races under a 0.25 percent margin, like the Senate contest, a much more arduous manual recount is ordered.

Of course, Florida is no stranger to recounts. The state earned the ire of the nation in the 2000 presidential campaign when a recount led to the infamous Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore that gave the presidency to George W. Bush.

Slow vote tallies in Broward and Palm Beach counties were at the center of that election, too.

Follow @alexbpickett

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