USA TODAY International Edition
Counts and recounts go on in tight contests
WASHINGTON – Six days after polls closed in the 2018 midterm elections, some major races remain undecided, and legal battles have begun.
Arizona
Republican Rep. Martha McSally conceded Arizona’s Senate race to Democratic congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema on Monday after the latest vote count showed McSally trailing by more than 38,000 votes out of more than 2.2 million ballots cast.
Florida
The state that was home to the mostwatched recount in history in 2000 is amid a statewide machine recount of more than 8 million votes.
Florida’s secretary of state ordered recounts Saturday for the Senate race – in which Republican Gov. Rick Scott held a 12,562-vote, or 0.15 percent, lead over incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson – and the race for governor, in which Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis led Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by fewer than 34,000 votes, or a margin of .41 percent, according to the Florida Division of Elections. The recount must be completed by 3 p.m. Thursday.
Nelson filed a lawsuit Monday against the Florida Department of State asking that ballots be counted that were postmarked before Election Day but didn’t arrive until after the polls closed.
Georgia
The race for Georgia’s open governor’s seat remains undeclared. Democrat Stacey Abrams said thousands of uncounted provisional ballots could push her into recount territory. Republican Brian Kemp, her opponent who stepped down as Georgia secretary of state after the election, held a 58,875-vote, or 1.5 percent, lead.
House races
The Democrats took control of the House of Representatives last Tuesday. The question is how large their majority will be.
There are nine House races that remain uncalled by the Associated Press: three in California, one in Georgia, one in Maine, one in New Jersey, two in New York and one in Utah.
If those margins hold, Democrats would end up with 231 House seats (they had 193 before the election), and Republicans would have 204 (down from 235).