BREAKING: Race Now in Recount Range; Updates on Quest for Recount in Florida Governor’s Race 2018

PHOTO: Vox.com

This post will be updated throughout the day on Thursday and Friday, November 8^th and 9^th, as Florida voters wait on edge-of-seats to learn whether the governor’s race will be subject to a recount.

UPDATES AS OF 7:50 P.M. THURSDAY NOV 8^TH

VOTE COUNT

As of 2 p.m. Thursday, Andrew Gillum’s was separated by less than half a percentage point (0.47%) from competitor Ron DeSantis, which is below the 0.50% threshold that triggers an automatic machine recount. By 7:10 p.m. Thursday, the gap had shrink to 0.44%.

During a Thursday morning conference call, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner advised election offices statewide to prepare for the possibility of three statewide recounts – in the U.S. Senate race (Rick Scott (R) vs incumbent Bill Nelson (D), who are separated by just under one-quarter of one percentage point); the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture race (Matt Caldwell (R) vs Nikki Fried (D), where the lead has flipped to Fried’s advantage in today’s counting); and in the closely watched Governor’s race.

DeSantis’ lead narrowed overnight from the 55,439 vote advantage reported on election night, to 42,933 as of 10:00 on Thursday morning, to 38,507 at 2:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon and to 36,272 by 7:50 p.m.

Here is a screen shot from the Florida Election Commission reflecting the gap.

STATUS OF BALLOT COUNTS BY COUNTY

As of 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the Florida Elections Commission reports the following.

Mail Ballots – All but 1 of Florida’s 67 counties have completed counts of mail ballots; Broward is the only counted that has not completed this count.

Early Votes – All but 1 of Florida’s 67 counties have completed counts of mail ballots; Broward is the only counted that has not completed this count.

Provisional Ballots – Only 26 of Florida’s 67 counties have completed provisional ballot counts.

Overseas Vote-by-Mail – None of Florida’s 67 counties have completed counts of overseas mail-in ballots.

BROWARD IS THE BIGGEST QUESTION MARK

Broward is the only county in Florida that has not yet completed counts of early votes or mail ballots. According to a report by the Miami Herald, posted just before noon on Thursday, Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, has not explained why her office is reporting two different figures for total ballots cast (695,799 vs 716,268), and has not provided a time-certain when counting will be fully completed. Read the full article here.