Nelson now within 17,000 in FL Senate race--hand recount is triggered

[book_worm]

he Florida governor’s race is heading to a machine recount and the U.S. Senate race will face a lengthier manual recount after returns from Broward County on Thursday pushed Democrats Andrew Gillum and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson closer to their Republican opponents Ron DeSantis and Gov. Rick Scott.

At the same time, Democrat Nikki Fried took the lead over Republican Matt Caldwell by 575 votes in the race for agriculture commissioner, which is also headed to a manual recount.


Gillum trailed DeSantis by less than 39,000 votes, or 0.47 percentage points. A recount is automatically triggered if the margin drops below 0.5 points.

In the Senate race, Nelson trailed Scott by about 17,000 votes, a margin of 0.22 points. A hand recount of ballots, longer and more thorough than a machine recount, is triggered if the margin falls below 0.25 points.


The attorney for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson had earlier predicted that Nelson would eventually win.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-ne-florida-governor-recount-close-20181108-story.html

On election night Nelson was down by 60,000--still votes to be counted in Broward County.


candidate

%

votes


Scott

50.1%


4,091,417
Nelson
incumbent


49.9%


4,074,073

[Gothmog]

1. Marc Elias is involved

Link to tweet

[bronxiteforever]

2. CNN election law expert just said Nelson can win this!

Holding my breath.

[NewJeffCT]

3. can you clarify your last sentence please?

you said that Nelson was down 60,000 on election night - still votes to be counted. So, now that those votes are counted from Broward, it's down to 17.000?

Is that correct?

[book_worm]

7. I understand that there are still votes to be counted in Broward and they will be back

to doing it later today.

[Jersey Devil]

4. My understanding is that they are still counting votes from election day

and that, in addition to having a manual recount, Nelson hopes to get closer or even go ahead before any recount. Is that accurate? Are they still counting votes from Broward, etc?

[book_worm]

6. Yes, that is my understanding

as well.

[Tiggeroshii]

8. Me too

Whether a recount is triggered will depend on the official results on Saturday when they are certified.

[edhopper]

5. It would suck for the people of Florida

but if we have to choose, I would prefer another Dem in the Senate.

[Cetacea]

9. Broward is solid blue.

Reason for optimism!

[msongs]

10. if we cant get both, the governors race would be my first choice. one senator makes no

substantial difference but taking over the state of florida makes a huge difference in the next election. and then there are the judges waiting for appointment by the new governor

[Tiggeroshii]

11. The senate seat will be helpfum towards capturing it in 2020.

It would nice

[mcar]

12. None of this makes sense

Why would more people vote for Nikki Fried than voted for Dem AG candidate Sean Shaw?

[BlueintheSTL]

13. Are there still a lot of votes to be counted in Palm Beach County as well?

I heard they still had a lot of votes to count.

[Jersey Devil]

14. Undervote pattern in Broward may have been caused by scanners

Elias pointed to several areas where the campaign can pick up votes. Some 10,000 votes are left to be counted in Palm Beach County, and Broward County is still tallying up votes as well.

Broward also experienced an “unusual undervote pattern,” Elias said.

Data on the county board of elections site shows that more votes were cast for down-ballot offices like governor, attorney general and even chief financial officer than the top-of-the-ticket Senate race.

Elias said that he was “pretty confident” this resulted from a calibration or scanning issue that didn’t read markings on this particular part of the ballot.

Reports that the ballot design, which had the Senate race buried on the lower left corner, threw off some voters would not “cause an undervote of the magnitude we’re seeing,” Elias said.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/nelson-campaign-confident-it-has-the-votes-to-win-florida-senate-recount

If Elias is right, a hand count would reveal more votes for Senate.

[11 Bravo]

15. Time for another Brooks Brothers riot?

[Gothmog]

16. From Marc Elias

Link to tweet