Both Broward and Hillsborough Counties failed to meet the deadline
A total of two counties in Florida did not submit the election results of the recount in the expected time frame, which would have otherwise raised the Republican candidates’ leads over their Democrat opponents, Tampa Bay Times reports.
Both Broward and Hillsborough Counties failed to meet the deadline to submit the tallies from the machine recounts, but instead, they provided the unofficial vote count reported on Saturday.
The recounts would have conclusively raised the margin for both Florida llc Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Rep. Ron DeSantis’s races by a couple of hundred votes.
According to the DC: The reasoning for the untimely tally in Broward County is unknown, however, Hillsborough County purposefully missed the deadline since the recount yielded fewer total votes than those recorded on Election Day, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“The fact that the percentages between the candidates remain the same gives us full confidence in our voting process and systems. Even though we achieved 99.84 percent success in our recount effort, we are not willing to accept that votes go unreported,” said Craig Latimer, the Hillsborough County Supervisor.
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Florida recount update as judge says Rick Scott can oversee his own election for senator https://t.co/Cxx9nx1ZKG pic.twitter.com/gU3IKMDRX8
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) November 16, 2018
“For that reason, the Canvassing Board has decided that the first unofficial results will stand as our second unofficial.”
Broward, on the other hand, missed the deadline by only two minutes, invalidating the entire recount.
Following the recount, Scott continues to lead Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson by just 0.15 percentage points, triggering a hand recount.
DeSantis is also ahead of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.
However, his 0.41-point lead is wide enough for the results to be certified on Tuesday.
Gillum still refuses to concede.