Midterm Elections

Florida Secretary of State Orders Recounts In Senate, Governor's Races

If the machine recounts shows margins under 0.25 percent in either of the races, that would trigger a manual recount.

Florida Secretary of State Orders Recounts In Senate, Governor's Races
Getty Images

Florida's senate race, and its gubernatorial contest are both headed for recounts. The Florida secretary of state ordered machine recounts in those races, after the margins in the unofficial vote tally for both fell below a half of one percent. 

Fewer than 15,000 votes — 0.15 percent — separated incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson and his opponent, Florida governor Rick Scott at last count. The gap in the governor's race, between Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Ron DeSantis is reportedly a little wider at 0.41 percent. The state agricultural commissioner's race will also be recounted. 

On the back of the recount announcement, Gillum withdrew his concession on Twitter, writing, "I am replacing my earlier concession with an unapologetic and uncompromised call to count every vote."

In a machine recount, each ballot is run through a tabulating machine and the totals are checked against the initial unofficial results. If the margin after the machine recount is below 0.25 percent, then officials have to do another recount by hand. 

The deadline for the machine recount is Thursday, and any subsequent manual recount would have to be finished the following Sunday. 

Additional reporting by Newsy affiliate CNN