Broward County completes machine recount ahead of Florida deadline

Broward County, which has been at the center of Florida’s heated midterm recount battle, has finished its machine recount in the three statewide races ahead of a Thursday afternoon deadline, according to NBC Miami.

The final ballots were reportedly tabulated by machine late Wednesday night, and officials will use the remaining time before the deadline to hand count mail-in ballots.

All of Florida’s 67 counties are working to meet a 3 p.m. Thursday deadline for machine recounts. If the margin between candidates is less than 0.25 percentage points, a hand recount would likely be triggered.

{mosads}Broward County has come under fire throughout the recount process, mainly from Republicans, for its handling of votes. President Trump on Wednesday became the latest Republican to call for the removal of Broward’s supervisor of elections, Brenda Snipes. 

Broward’s completion of the machine recount comes as officials in Palm Beach County have suggested they might not meet the deadline. Palm Beach’s supervisor of  elections, Susan Bucher, said earlier this week she believed they’d hit the deadline in the Senate race. But with machine mishaps, she warned that the county is “in prayer mode to finish on time,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Florida’s heated Senate race has been at the center of the recount as incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D) and Gov. Rick Scott (R) engage in a litigation battle.

A federal judge ruled Thursday morning that voters whose mail-in and provisional ballots were initially rejected due to signature issues will get two more days to fix their ballots.

“The precise issue in this case is whether Florida’s law that allows county election officials to reject vote-by-mail and provisional ballots for mismatched signatures — with no standards, an illusory process to cure, and no process to challenge the rejection — passes constitutional muster,” Judge Mark Walker wrote in his decision. “The answer is simple. It does not.”

Nelson’s recount lawyer, Marc Elias, praised the decision. But Scott’s team and the National Republican Senatorial Committee filed an appeal Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta to challenge it.

A hand recount is likely in the Senate race, since Scott currently leads Nelson by only 0.15 percentage points.

In the governor’s race, the candidates are separated by a wider margin, with former Rep. Ron DeSantis (R) currently ahead of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) by 0.41 percentage points.