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Even with under half a half lead, Rick Scott was asked to win over Bill Nelson in Florida'a U.S. Senate race. But the race might not be over.
WTSP
Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott, left, is hoping to unseat Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. in November(Photo: Wilfredo Lee (AP) / John McCall / South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)
A statewide machine recount of more than 8 million votes slowly got underway in the United States and the United States Senate races.
Ballot counting began in Broward and Palm Beach counties, two Democratic strongholds, after razor-thin margins caused Florida's secretary of state to order a recount on Saturday.
In the Senate race, the Republican challenger, Gov. Rick Scott, asked victory just before midnight Tuesday, but the incumbent, Democrat Bill Nelson, never conceded the race. Nelson had 51.48 percent of the 124,069 counted bales, to 48.09 percent for Scott.
Broward and Palm Beach Counties of "creeping fraud" and asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate.
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In the race for governor, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum increased his lead to 51.18 percent over 47.59 percent for the Republican candidate, Rep. Ron DeSantis.
A day after pulling back his concession in the race for Florida governor Saturday, Gillum will be heading to recount ground zero for a count every vote rally.
Sunday morning, Gillum and his family were attending a church service in Tallahassee, where the congregation adorned in blue and white and Gillum campaign paraphernalia was to honor his years of public service.
He will be traveling to Fort Lauderdale in Broward County for New Mount Olive Baptist Church this evening.
In the other close race for agriculture, Democrat Nikki Fried extended his margin to 51.30 percent to 48.70 percent for Republican Matt Caldwell.
The recount began in Palm Beach County on Saturday evening around 5 p.m.
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Election workers ran small stacks of paper by Sunday morning. A couple of workers have been dumped at nearby tables that could not be processed by the machines.
Susan Bucher and Judge August Bonavita, Judge August Bonavita, both members of the county's canvassing board, were examining the "undervotes" and "overvotes" as attorneys, reporters and members of the public watched on.
An undervote is when a candidate is selected in a particular race, while an overvote occurs when too many choices have been selected.
Irwin Jacobowitz, the third member of the canvassing board, joined about 11 a.m. to give Bonavita a break.
The Broward County Supervisor of Elections office reached capacity before 7 am, when the recount was scheduled to begin. The area outside with crews and attorneys intent on getting inside. Plenty of law enforcement guarded the area.
It is a small contingent of protestors with Trump, DeSantis and Scott signs huddled up, but did not sing or cause any disruptions.
Broward County was scheduled to begin counting on about 700,000 Sunday morning bales, but was tested not registering all balls. Republican representatives of the United States of America
Groups of journalists gathered outside the doors of the Broward county supervisor of elections in Lauderhill Florida. Small groups of reporters had been allowed inside the building. The rest were instructed to wait outside.
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Four hours after counting, counting machines were counted in Broward County
When reporters showed up Sunday morning at the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Office, expecting to observe the ballot recount, no one was there except for a St. Lucie County sheriff's deputy.
The deputy said Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker told him the recount had been postponed and would begin at 7 am Monday.
An expert who has been brought to the table by the deputy said.
Since the county 's unofficial vote has been counted, most of them apparently from Democrats.
Contributing: The Associated Press; Ana Ceballos, Naples Daily News; Joel Shannon, USA TODAY
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