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Florida Tag

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker upheld Florida law that "forbids county election offices from counting vote-by-mail ballots received after 7 p.m. Election Day." This was the last best hope for Democrats after suffering several setbacks in recent days, including Florida Governor Rick Scott gaining over 800 votes in the mandatory recount, yet as of this writing Nelson has yet to concede.

More than a week after the election and we finally have a winner in Florida's Governor race -- Republican Ron DeSantis was declared the winner by enough of a margin to stave off a hand recount. The results won't be certified until next week, which is a little concerning given the shenanigans we've seen during the recount process.

The Florida recount drama continues as Palm County Beach missed the 3PM ET deadline due to faulty machines. Broward County managed to make the deadline at the last minute. Florida has posted the results. It looks like Republican Ron DeSantis will win over Democrat Andrew Gillum, who refuses to concede. The race between incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Rick Scott fell at the 0.15% margin so the state has ordered a hand recount.

Why, Florida? WHY?! Just when it looked like Palm Beach County had better sailing than Broward County, news comes out that aging equipment has overheated and caused mismatched results. From The Miami Herald:
The county’s decade-old ballot-counting machines overheated and gave incorrect totals, forcing the county to restart its recount of about 175,000 early votes, supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher said Tuesday night.

A judge has extended the recount in Palm Beach County to November 20. The original deadline was this Thursday. From The Palm Beach Post:
The order would include extending the recounting of votes in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott, the governor’s race between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum, the race for agriculture commissioner between Democrat Nikki Fried and Republican Matt Caldwell, and the race for state House District 89 between Democrat Jim Bonfiglio and Republican Mike Caruso.

I detailed yesterday how the recount in the Florida senate and governor races have become messy, especially in Broward County. Now it looks like election officials may have to recount votes by hand instead if the results are too tight. Incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson has also demanded that his opponent Governor Rick Scott recuse himself from the recount.

The recount in Florida has to finish by Thursday, November 15, but officials in Palm Beach County claimed that the recount cannot possibly end by then. It doesn't help that President Donald Trump has demanded officials halt the recount while both sides continue to demean each other, especially in Broward County, whose recount has turned into a massive dumpster fire. Republican Gov. Rick Scott still leads incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson by 12,562 votes (.15%). Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis leads Democrat Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by 33,684 votes (.41%)

As the mandatory recount kicks off in Florida, insults and accusations fly between Democrats and Republicans. As of Sunday morning, Governor Rick Scott (R) leads Senator Bill Nelson (D) by 12,562 votes (by 0.15%) in the Senate race.  Representative Ron DeSantis (R) leads Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum by 33,684 votes (by  0.41%)) in the gubernatorial race.

Attorneys for Democrat candidate for Florida governor Andrew Gillum and Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) objected Saturday to the exclusion of a vote by a non-citizen. Despite their objections, the vote was not counted, and the Nelson campaign has disavowed their own attorney, claiming that the attorney "was not authorized" to make such a decision and iterating that "non-citizens cannot vote in U.S. elections.”

From joy and relief to oh-em-gee. Florida's Republican Secretary of State has been forced to order a recount of Tuesday's election results for both the Senate and the gubernatorial races.  The recount is mandatory and automatically triggered when the vote margin is less than 0.5%, as it has become since initial results were announced. The recount results are due by 3 p.m. EST on Thursday, November 15th, 2018.  If there is a margin of less than 0.25% following this recount, there will be a second recount, this time by hand. The results of this second recount (which seems likely in the Senate race since the margin is already less than 0.25%) will be due three days later, on the 18th.