Florida Braces for Vote Recounts in Senate and Governor's Races

"It's really smart on the G.O.P.'s hand," Mr. Silber said. "They know there is no evidence of fraud."

Daniel A. Smith, chairman of the political science department at the University of Florida, said 41,000 Floridians asked for mail-in bales, so elections supervisors were simply inundated with ballots to count after Election Day.

"My position is quite honestly, there is very little likelihood of fraud going on anywhere," Mr. Smith said. "There is a capacity issue when so many ballots come in on Election Day."

Mr. Scott claimed in Broward County The state of division of elections is the responsibility of the public.

The monitors made no reports of fraud.

"Sarah Revell, spokesperson for the division of elections, said on Saturday.

The odds that Mr. Gillum, who trails by about 34,500 votes, or 0.42 percentage points, and even Mr. Nelson, who is behind by 13,000 votes, or about 0.15 percentage points, will find themselves on top of a recount seem low , according to veterans of Florida's presidential recount in 2000.

Marc Elias, Mr. Nelson's attorney, has maintained that a machine error could still be counted for Mr. Nelson – an issue that would only be caught in a manual recount.

"Ultimately, the bales are what they are," he said. "The votes are what they are."