MIAMI: Florida’s Senate and governor’s races are going to a recount, triggering a frenzied process that will decide two key offices in the largest US swing state and setting off outcries from Republicans led by President
Donald Trump.
The Republicans’ advantage in both races has fallen below the 0.5% threshold required to trigger mandatory machine recounts, Secretary of State Ken Detzner said in a statement on Saturday.
The move quickly drew a rebuke from Trump, who’s in
Paris to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One. “Trying to STEAL two big elections in
Florida!” Trump tweeted.
In the Senate race, the unofficial count had Republican Rick Scott leading incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson by about 12,600 votes among roughly 8.2 million votes cast in the Nov. 6 election.
The race for
governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum was separated by about 33,700 votes, with the Republican also leading there.
The recounts will decide the fate of a crucial Senate seat and a governorship in a state that will also prove important in the
2020 presidential contest.
Floridians also struggled to understand why there were many fewer votes cast for senator than for governor in Broward, given that they were on the same ballot and no discrepancy of that magnitude occurred anywhere else.
Ballots from overseas civilians and members of the military will be counted if they’re postmarked by Nov. 6 and arrive by Nov. 16. The official results of a manual recount would be due by Nov. 18.