Recounts ordered in three Fla. races

Votes will be tallied again for U.S. Senate, governor, agriculture commissioner

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner ordered recounts for three statewide elections Saturday, placing the state in the national spotlight once again as lawsuits, heated rhetoric, and claims of voter fraud and “stealing” the election called to mind the drama of the 2000 presidential election recount.

Detzner’s order triggered a machine recount for the U.S. Senate race between GOP Gov. Rick Scott and incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson; for the governor’s race between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum; and for the agriculture commissioner race featuring Democrat Nikki Fried and Republican state Rep. Matt Caldwell.

Scott spokesman Chris Hartline said Scott’s margin over Nelson of 12,562 votes,

or 0.15 percentage points, “is larger than any recount since 2000 has ever closed. … It’s time for Sen. Nelson to accept reality and spare the state of Florida the time, expense and discord of a recount.”

Nelson, whose campaign had unsuccessfully sought an injunction to extend the Saturday deadline, said in a statement, “This process is about one thing: making sure every legal ballot is counted and protecting the right of every Floridian to participate in our democracy.”

“We have every expectation the recount will be full and fair and will continue taking action to ensure every vote is counted without interference or efforts to undermine the democratic process,” said Nelson. “We believe when every legal ballot is counted we’ll win this election”

Gillum, who trails DeSantis by 33,694 votes, or 0.41 percent, chided GOP officials for alleging voter fraud without evidence and urged all candidates to tone down the rhetoric, even as he said he’ll pursue the recount to ensure every vote was counted.

“I am replacing my earlier concession with an unapologetic and uncompromised call to count every vote,” Gillum told reporters Saturday. He also said he’d accept the results of the recount “as long as every vote is counted.” But his lawyer, Barry Richard, who represented George W. Bush in the 2000 recount lawsuits, wouldn’t rule out a lawsuit after the recount results.

“Mayor Gillum is not waiving any right he has to ensure all of the votes are counted,” Richard said. “We’re not going to file a lawsuit for no reason. On the other hand, if there are votes that were not counted even with the machine recount that might make a difference then we’ll look at that and take whatever action is appropriate.”

In his own statement Saturday, DeSantis said the results were “clear and unambiguous, just as they were on Election Night.”

The agriculture commissioner race was the closest of all, with Fried leading Caldwell by 5,326 votes, or a 0.06 point margin. Fried issued a statement Saturday afternoon proclaiming “Victory.”

“I am proud, humbled and honored to be elected the first female Commissioner of Agriculture in this state,” Fried said. “One reason why I ran was to show girls like my 9-year-old niece that there are no barriers they cannot break — and nothing they cannot do.”

While votes had been coming in from all 67 counties as canvassing boards met to approve or disallow provisional ballots, Palm Beach and Broward have been the center of attention as the slow counting of votes led Scott and Republican allies to claim “rampant fraud” in those counties. Caldwell had filed a lawsuit against the Broward County elections office Friday, asking courts to determine if it “illegally included ballots after polls closed.”

President Donald Trump also chimed in Saturday, posting on Twitter, “Trying to STEAL two big elections in Florida! We are watching closely!”

However, Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman Jeremy Burns said Friday the Florida Secretary of State told them “they had no indications of fraud.”

Department of State officials also confirmed Saturday that two election observers sent to watch polling places in Broward County during the election have not witnessed voter fraud, but will work with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement if any cases arise.

“Department observers continue to monitor the administration of the election through the certification of results,” Department of State spokeswoman Sarah Revell wrote in an email. “Our staff has seen no evidence of criminal activity at this time.”

Still, an email sent from Scott’s campaign, not the governor’s office, said Scott was “encouraging” Florida sheriffs to “watch for any violations and take appropriate action.”

The recounts have already spurred four lawsuits, and the irregular vote counting schedules kept by Palm Beach and Broward counties are becoming national punchlines, but Richard said the 2018 recounts are much different than the

2000 version.

After the 2000 election, Florida lawmakers passed a law making recounts automatic for elections within

0.5 percent, and there are no “butterfly ballots” and no hanging chads this time around.

“I’ve learned from prior experience that it’s always more complicated than those of us watching it think it is,” Richard said. “But I will tell you it’s far, far less complicated than it was in

2000. The votes are either there or they’re not there.”

For the machine recounts, county election officials will feed ballots into machines, a process which will begin in Broward County Sunday morning and on Monday in Orange County. The second round of results is due to the state by 3 p.m. Thursday. If the results show a margin of

0.25 percent or less, a hand recount is ordered.

A hand recount consists of counting only ballots that weren’t counted by the machines – overvotes and undervotes. An undervote is when a voter doesn’t make a selection in a race, and an overvote is when a voter fills in more than one option in a race. Sometimes a voter will try to circle their option instead of filling out their selection, so local canvassing boards will try to determine “voter intent” by reviewing the votes.

The biggest question in the Senate recount is the

24,000 voters in Broward who cast ballots for the governor’s race but not Senate. A faulty ballot layout may have caused voters to overlook the race, but Nelson’s attorney, Marc Elias, doubted that theory and said he believed votes may not have been picked up by scanners. If that was the case, a hand recount could pick those up where a machine count fails.

But there was also a disparity between congressional districts in Broward, with fewer Senate votes in the district with no House race just below the Senate race on the ballot.

In its lawsuit, Nelson’s campaign also argued the 67 counties’ “standardless and inconsistent signaturematching process” for voteby-mail and provisional ballots has led to wildly different reasons for counties to reject ballots. Judge Robert Hinkle set a hearing date for Wednesday.

While Scott had successfully sued the Palm Beach and Broward supervisors of elections seeking more transparency in the votecounting process, the two counties didn’t initially comply.

In Broward, the overall count sent to the state included 205 provisional ballots that were opened and processed before the Canvassing Board had a chance to review their eligibility. The Canvassing Board on Friday night rejected about two dozen of those ballots, mostly because signatures didn’t match those on file.

However, because the ballots can no longer be matched with the envelopes, a Republican Party representative said all the votes are spoiled. “It seems unfair to me to disenfranchise 205 voters at the expense of a few voters,” Snipes said.

In Palm Beach, a judge rebuked Palm Beach County’s elections chief Susan Bucher over her delay in turning over duplicated ballots sought by Scott’s Senate campaign.

“It’s my opinion, zip-adee-doo-dah has been done to comply,” Judge Krista Marx said.

Protesters greeted Bucher when she left the courthouse, yelling that she “should be locked up.”

Both sides were seeking volunteers for the next week. But despite the closeness of the three statewide races, they weren’t the only ones headed toward a recount. A state Senate race and two state House races will also go through the process, including District 26 in Volusia County between Democratic state Rep. Patrick Henry and Republican Elizabeth Fetterhoff. Henry trailed by 59 votes.