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Florida's secretary of state has ordered a manual recount of Florida’s ballots after the results of an unofficial machine count showed that some voters may have been overlooked in the process.
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Elections officials were expected to inspect by hand any ballots that were designated undervotes or overvotes, which are cases in which a voting machine may have reviewed a ballot and concluded that a voter had skipped a contest or marked more than one selection.
Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator Bill Nelson trailed his Republican challenger, former Florida Governor Rick Scott, by about 12,600 votes, or 0.15 percent of the more than 8 million ballots cast following an electronic recount. The razor-thin margin triggers a manual recount under state law which says that any race that ends with a margin of .25 must be recounted.
Multiple problems were reported, including one Florida country, Broward County, which candidate Rick Scott sought to sue earlier for alleged voting irregularies despite presenting no evidence, having the results of their recount rejected because they were submitted two minutes after the 3 p.m. deadline. Broward County happens to be a heavily Democrat leaning country, which has made it a favorite punching bag for Republican candidates.
The race for Florida governor, between progressive Andrew Gillum and Republican and Trump ally Ron DeSantis, is also incredibly close, but no recount has been ordered as of yet. Results have also not been certified by election officials in Florida.
The results of the manual recount for the Senate race has a deadline of Sunday, Nov. 18 by noon, officials said.
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