Here’s Why Florida and Georgia’s Election Day Has Turned into Election Week and a Half

[The hottest spot in Florida? The seat of the Broward County elections chief.]

If a county can’t meet the recount deadline, the previous unofficial results stand — those filed on Saturday. But — and there is always a “but” in Florida — under state statute, even if a recount is not finished by the deadline, it must be completed eventually. Elections supervisors had already been scheduled to count overseas mail ballots through 10 days after the election, which is Friday. The formal election results won’t be certified by the secretary of state until Tuesday.

The Florida governor’s race is all but decided

Even with the recount and the possibility of more ballots validated by court rulings, the governor’s race is all but decided, with the former Republican congressman, Ron DeSantis, on track to beat the Democrat, Mayor Andrew Gillum of Tallahbadee. Mr. Gillum, who always knew that winning the machine recount was a long shot, is considering a lawsuit contesting the results, according to two people close him, after having withdrawn his election-night concession. Mr. Gillum, in consultation with his elections lawyer Barry Richard — who represented Republicans in the 2000 Florida recount — has told his inner circle that he wants to see every vote counted, including absentee and military ballots, which could delay his formal withdrawal.

The Senate race is still up in the air

Secretary of State Ken Detzner ordered a manual recount in the race, as well as in the contest for state agriculture commissioner. The deadline for the manual recounts will be noon Sunday. The Nelson campaign intends to fight until all legal options are exhausted, according to several Democratic officials in Florida with knowledge of his plans.

[Follow the latest Florida election results]

Advisers say Mr. Nelson, who trails Mr. Scott by 12,603 votes, still believes he will prevail, and hopes to add several thousand votes after a federal court ruling on Thursday allowed reviews of up to 4,000 ballots whose signatures had not been validated. His biggest hope — which he shares with Mr. Gillum — is that an as-yet-unknown number of votes, previously uncounted, will emerge during the recount, according to people close to the three-term senator. He is also closely watching the outcome of a lawsuit, filed in Palm Beach County, that would require state elections officials to count mail-in ballots not received by the deadline.

Then there’s pesky Palm Beach County

The South Florida county whose hanging chads held a presidential election hostage 18 years ago is at the center of another election. This time, it’s all about a recount, old machines and an unyielding deadline. The supervisor of election, Susan Bucher, said her aging and prone-to-overheating equipment had failed to count a “substantial” number of ballots, so they were unable to complete the recount. About 585,000 votes were cast in Palm Beach, a Democratic stronghold. Hillsborough County did not submit recount totals in time for the deadline because the count had resulted in 846 fewer votes than originally counted, possibly because of two power failures.