The Florida governor race between Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Ron DeSantis wasn’t decided on Tuesday night, as it appears there may be a recount on the ballots.
Gillum conceded the race just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday when it seemed he was too far behind DeSantis in votes, but thousands of votes remained uncounted. Since then, the margins between the two have greatly decreased.
“As of 9 a.m., DeSantis’ lead was just 42,948 votes out of 8,189,305 ballots cast — equal to 0.52 percent of the vote,” according to The Miami Herald.
“Florida law requires an automatic machine recount in any race where the margin of victory is within one half of one percentage point.”
Around 2 p.m., the margin had dropped below 0.50 percent.
DeSantis is holding a 0.47 percent or “38,515 ballots out of more than 8.2 million cast,” The Palm Beach Post reports.
Gillum’s campaign said, in a statement:
“On Tuesday night, the Gillum for Governor campaign operated with the best information available about the number of outstanding ballots left to count. Since that time, it has become clear there are many more uncounted ballots than was originally reported. We are committed to ensuring every single vote in Florida is counted.”
On Thursday, his campaign offices across the state reached out to voters who casted provisional ballots, but were not counted Tuesday evening due to an issue with their registration or identification.
Gillum tweeted:
Every voice must be heard in this race! If you voted a provisional ballot, make sure your vote gets counted by contacting your County Supervisor of Elections by 5 PM TODAY. https://t.co/FCMBydAKll pic.twitter.com/3ASg5eXFH6
— Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) November 8, 2018
In Palm Beach county alone, more than 10,000 provisional ballots were cast. Thousands of votes still need to be counted.
“Gillum’s campaign has hired Barry Richard to represent them during the recount,” according to CNN. “Richard had previously been known for representing Bush during the 2000 recount.”
Broward County is important for Gillum as it is considered rich in Democratic votes. According to information published by the Florida Division of Elections, the county has yet to report all its early voting and absentee voting totals.
County election officials in Florida have until 1 p.m. Saturday to report unofficial results to the state. “If the winning margin is less than 0.5 points according to those results, a machine recount is mandated by state law, unless the losing candidate says in writing that he does not wish to pursue the recount,” according to USA Today.
At the same time, the Senate race between Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson and Republican Gov. Rick Scott looks like it’s also headed to a recount.
As of Thursday morning, state election counts put Scott ahead of Nelson by just 22,000 votes, according to The Associated Press. An estimated 113,000 ballots had not been counted, statewide. And they are in locations Nelson would be expected to win by a vote margin of 24.9 percent.
