Ken Detzner, the secretary of state of Florida, a key swing US state, on Saturday ordered machine recounts for three razor-thin races for governor, US senator and the state’s agriculture commissioner.

The results of the recounts are due by 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Thursday, said Detzner, Xinhua news agency reported.

Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott has seen his lead narrow over incumbent Democratic US Senator Bill Nelson to about 12,500 votes, or 0.15 per cent, by Saturday afternoon, according to a CNBC report.

In the race for governor between former Republican US House Representative Ron DeSantis and Democratic mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum, DeSantis was leading by 0.41 percentage points.

Gillum conceded to DeSantis on Tuesday night, but later said every vote should count.

A third statewide race to be recounted is the agriculture commissioner race between Democrat Nikki Fried and Republican Matt Caldwell. Fried currently held only a 5,326-vote lead, a margin of 0.07 per cent.

Florida law requires a machine recount when the leading candidate’s margin is 0.5 percentage points or less, and a hand recount if it’s 0.25 or less.

Florida has been seen as a key swing state for decades and is expected to play a critical role in the 2020 US general elections. </s> The Florida secretary of state is ordering recounts in the U.S. Senate, commissioner of agriculture and governor races, an unprecedented review of three major races in the state that took five weeks to decide the 2000 presidential election.

Secretary Ken Detzner issued the order on Saturday after the unofficial results of all three races fell within the margin that by law triggers a recount.

The unofficial results show that Republican former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis led Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by less than 0.5 percentage points, which will require a machine recount of ballots.

In the Senate race, Republican Gov. Rick Scott's lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson is less than 0.25 percentage points, which will require a hand recount of ballots from tabulation machines that couldn't determine which candidate got the vote.

The Florida agriculture commission race between Democratic candidate Nikki Fried and Republican candidate Matt Caldwell has flipped and is heading for a recount.

The election was initially called for Caldwell, but according to the Florida Election Watch website, Fried moved ahead of Caldwell by 2,920 votes on Thursday.

Previous: Florida governor, Senate and agriculture races could be headed for recounts

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> The Florida secretary of state is ordering recounts in the U.S. Senate and governor races, an unprecedented review of two major races in the state that took five weeks to decide the 2000 presidential election.

Secretary Ken Detzner issued the order on Saturday after the unofficial results in both races fell within the margin that by law triggers a recount.

The unofficial results show that Republican former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis led Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by less than 0.5 percentage points, which will require a machine recount of ballots.

In the Senate race, Republican Gov. Rick Scott's lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson is less than 0.25 percentage points, which will require a hand recount of ballots from tabulation machines that couldn't determine which candidate got the vote </s> TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The Florida secretary of state ordered recounts in the U.S. Senate and governor races on Saturday, an unprecedented review of two major races in the state that took five weeks to decide the 2000 presidential election.

Secretary Ken Detzner issued the order after the unofficial results in both races fell within the margin that by law triggers a recount. His office was unaware of any other time either a governor race or U.S. Senate race required a recount, let alone both in the same election.

The unofficial results show that Republican former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis led Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by 0.41 percentage points.

In the Senate race, Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson is 0.14 percentage points.

Detzner ordered machine recounts in both races. Once completed, if the difference in the races are at 0.25 percentage points or below, a hand recount will be ordered, said Department of State spokeswoman Sarah Revell.

Saturday’s development’s return Florida to the center of a major political drama 18 years after an infamous presidential recount left control of the White House undecided for more than a month.

The latest recount underscores the deep divides plaguing one of the most critical states in American politics. Beyond determining the governorship, it will decide whether Nelson returns to Washington for a fourth term or whether Republicans will pad their majority in the Senate.

Florida’s 67 counties will decide when to begin the recounts. They could start the moment Detzner issued his order, or elections officials can wait until Sunday or Monday. But they must finish the machine recounts by 3 p.m. Thursday.

Gillum conceded to DeSantis on Tuesday night, but when the results began to narrow, he said that every vote should count and he’s not expected to block a recount. DeSantis has said little about the recount and is instead proceeding as if he won the election, appointing a transition team and preparing to take office in January.

The battle for Nelson’s Senate seat has been much more heated, with both sides filing lawsuits. Scott has said Nelson is trying to steal the election, while Nelson is accusing Scott of trying to stop elections officials from counting every ballot.

President Donald Trump has also weighed in on Florida’s close elections.

Trump took Scott’s side on Friday, telling reporters that the federal government could get involved and adding: ‘’all of the sudden they are finding votes out of nowhere.”

‘’What’s going on in Florida is a disgrace,” he said.

The scene was reminiscent of the 2000 presidential recount, when it took more than five weeks for Florida to declare George W. Bush the victor over Vice President Al Gore by 537 votes, and thus giving Bush the presidency.

Florida was mocked for the way it handled the infamous 2000 recount, especially since there was no uniform process then on how to proceed. That has changed, with the Legislature passing a clear procedure on how a recount should be conducted.

Florida is also conducting a recount in a third statewide race. Democrat Nikki Fried had a 0.07 percentage point lead lead over Republican state Rep. Matt Caldwell in the race for agriculture commissioner, one of Florida’s three Cabinet seats. </s> According to the New York Times, Florida officials announced Saturday that with the elections for senator, governor and agriculture commissioner deemed too close to call, that mandatory machine recounts are in order.

Gov. Rick Scott, whose sizable lead has evaporated to less than 13,000 votes as ballots continue to be tallied, has cried foul. The target of his ire, Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes, is under fire for not only admitting to tabulating roughly a dozen rejected ballots, but failing to confirm if she has finished counting them all.

“Three days after Election Day, the vote tally continues to change and Supervisor Snipes still refuses to explain where and how the new votes came to light,” the campaign said in a statement. “The public deserves a clear and direct answer.”

The deadline for the state’s 67 counties to hand in their unofficial results was today at noon. As such, three statewide races are legally required to go to a recount since they remain under a 0.5 percentage point margin:
• The Senate race between Gov. Rick Scott (R) and Bill Nelson (D)
• The governor’s race between Ron DeSantis (R) and Andrew Gillum (D)
• The commissioner of agriculture race between Nikki Fried (D) and Matt Caldwell (R)

The order to initiate the recount is expected this afternoon from Secretary of State Ken Detzner, an appointee of Mr. Scott. While tallies are expected to begin soon as well, starting with the larger Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Smaller counties are expected to begin tomorrow.

Each county has until Thursday to run all of its ballots through counting machines again. While any race that remains within a margin of 0.25 of a percentage point or less will have until the 18th to conduct a manual recount.

Of important note, the odds of Gillum emerging triumphant in a recount appear to be low, as he currently trails DeSantis by 33,600 votes—or 0.41 percentage points. </s> The Florida secretary of state has officially ordered a recount in the U.S. Senate and governor races, an unprecedented review of two major races in the state that took five weeks to decide the 2000 presidential election.

Secretary Ken Detzner issued the order on Saturday after the unofficial results in both races fell within the margin that by law triggers a recount.

The unofficial results show that Republican former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis led Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by .41 percentage points.

In the Senate race, Republican Gov. Rick Scott's leads over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson by .15 percentage points.

Detzner also ordered a recount for Florida's Agriculture Commissioner race where Democratic Nikki Fried stands .06 percentage points above Republican Matt Caldwell.

All three races will undergo machine recounts with results due no later than 3pm on Thursday November 15 to the Florida Department of State.

If the vote is too close to call yet again by falling within a 0.25 margin or less, the three races will advance to hand recounts, due to be completed by November 18.

County elections supervisors had until noon Saturday to submit results.

President Donald Trump - who campaigned for both Scott and DeSantis - said that the recounts are a Democrat ploy to steal the election.

'Trying to STEAL two big elections in Florida! We are watching closely!' the president tweeted on Saturday.

Scott called for his opponent DeSantis to decline the recount.

'It's time for Senator Nelson to accept reality and spare the state of the Florida the time, expense and discord of a recount,' Scott's spokesman Chris Hartline said.

Nelson responded saying he does not intend to back down.

'We have every expectation the recount will be full and fair and will continue taking action to ensure every vote is counted without interference or efforts to undermine the democratic process. We believe when every legal ballot is counted we'll win this election,' he said in a statement.

All the while protesters rallied outside the offices of the Broward County Supervisor of Elections in Lauderhill on Saturday where the final counts were made ahead of the noon deadline.

The announcement was made after Broward County election monitors said they saw no evidence of criminal activity in Tuesday's midterm election, despite the county being run by a controversial supervisor who mixed in illegal votes and failed to reveal the number of uncounted votes.

'Our staff has seen no evidence of criminal activity at this time,' Sarah Revell, spokesperson for the state Department of Elections, said to the Miami Herald on Saturday morning.

Following Tuesday's election, Rick Scott filed a lawsuit against Broward County and Palm Beach County, accusing Democrats of trying to steal the election on Thursday evening. He asked for Snipes to turn over several records detailing the counting and collection of ballots.

Snipes has been accused of 'fraud' in how she handled counting ballots in the election by Scott, President Donald Trump, and Republicans. She has a long history of controversies when it comes to vote counting.

She agreed to present 205 provisional ballots to Broward County's canvassing board for inspection, and the board declared on Friday that 20 of the 205 provisional ballots were illegal due to mismatched signatures.

They were set aside then counted in a voting machine, but the results were not added to the election's final total vote count.

On Friday the county didn't know how to move forward with the invalid ballots.

'We have found no clear authority controlling the situation faced by the board,' Broward County Attorney Andrew Meyers said.

Broward County collected more than 600 provisional ballots on Election Day, but majority were deemed invalid by the board for reasons including late registration or voting in the wrong precinct.

Since the election two Department of Elections have been stationed in Broward County to oversee see the administration of the elections, visit polling stations and 'ensure all laws are followed'.

In May Florida's Secretary of State announced increased oversight after a court found Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes broke the law by authorizing the premature destruction of ballots pertaining to a contested race following the 2016 elections.

On Saturday Broward official hit back at fraud allegations in a news conference after the ballot tally.

'There have been allegation of fraud. Those are serious charges to recklessly offer out there. To give a claim of fraud without any evidence, I think it unacceptable,' Eugene Pettis, a lawyer for Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes said. </s> Florida authorities on Saturday ordered a statewide recount in the contentious races for US Senate and governor, amid tit-for-tat accusations of fraud from the candidates -- plunging the state once again into election uncertainty.

Eighteen years after the Sunshine State found itself at the heart of a battle for the US presidency, it was once again in the spotlight after Tuesday's vote, which left the contests for statewide offices undecided.

Florida's 67 counties had been given until midday (1700 GMT) on Saturday to submit unofficial totals.

State law triggers a machine recount if the difference in a race is within 0.5 percent. Florida's secretary of state Ken Detzner issued the official order for the recounts after the deadline.

After the cut-off, the Senate race between outgoing Republican governor Rick Scott and incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson was super close: Scott's lead stood at just 12,562 votes out of nearly 8.2 million cast, a margin of just 0.15 percent.

In the governor's race, the latest unofficial results on the Florida division of elections website show Republican Ron DeSantis, who was backed by Donald Trump, leading Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum by just 33,684 votes out of more than 8.2 million cast, or a margin of 0.41 percent.

"Machine recount indicated," the website said in both cases.

In a statement, Detzner said the results of the machine recount would be due on November 15 at 3:00 pm (2000 GMT).

Trump was not amused by the development, tweeting from France: "Trying to STEAL two big elections in Florida! We are watching closely!"

With Florida's developments raising partisan tensions to fresh highs, Trump on Friday alleged a major corruption scandal was brewing.

"What's going on in Florida is a disgrace," Trump told reporters.

"Bad things are going on in Broward Country, really bad things," Trump added, referring to a Democrat-heavy county where officials were slowly counting votes including absentee and provisional ballots.

Scott filed lawsuits against Broward and Palm Beach counties alleging fraud after his lead narrowed.

On Saturday, he urged Florida's sheriffs to "watch for any violations during the recount process as outlined in Florida law."

Meanwhile, Nelson -- accusing Scott of trying to suppress votes -- fired back with a lawsuit of his own to block steps that would reject thousands of mail-in ballots.

The recount is reminiscent of the dramatic recounts that occurred in parts of Florida after the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Those recounts were halted by the US Supreme Court, and Bush defeated Gore by 537 votes in Florida to win the presidency. Broward County was at the heart of that controversy as well.

Most US political races have already been settled. But Florida is not alone.

In neighboring Georgia, the Democratic candidate for governor initiated legal action to ensure all votes were counted in her contest.

In Arizona, there is still no official result in a fierce US Senate battle that has Democrat Kyrsten Sinema leading Republican Martha McSally by a slim margin.

The ballot chaos raises fresh questions about why the world's most powerful democracy is incapable of producing swift and accurate election results across all 50 states. </s> The Florida Democratic Party accused the Republican candidate for state Agriculture Commissioner, Matt Caldwell, of trying to interfere with legal ballot counting, as the North Fort Myers Republican awaits a hearing on a request to halt counting absentee ballots received after voting hours ended.

"Florida is not a banana republic and Matt Caldwell is not a third world dictator," said Party Executive Director Juan Penalosa, in a one-paragraph statement released Saturday.

"In America we don't allow politicians to manipulate the courts or government agencies to interfere with legal elections that they are losing," Penalosa said.

Caldwell and his campaign committee filed suit Friday against beleaguered Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes seeking to stop the counting of ballots that were not in hand when the polls closed.

More: Key dates, terms for Florida’s recount decisions on governor, Senate races

More: Florida recounts: Hand recount vs. machine recount and other things to know

Caldwell Campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez released the following statement Saturday:

“Brenda Snipes continues to believe she is above the law. Our process server has tried to deliver our lawsuit both last night and again this morning, a period of more than 14 hours, but Snipes refuses to be served. Her disregard for Florida voters and the integrity of this election is illegal and shameful.”

Caldwell thought he had edged out a victory in the agricultural commissioner race Tuesday night when he had about a 40,000 vote lead over Democratic candidate Nikki Fried.

But the latest vote count shows Caldwell trailing Fried by 4,485 votes, as of Saturday morning. The difference between the candidates is .06 percent, signaling an automatic recount and possibly a manual recount, if the machine count narrows the margin to 0.025 percent.

Judge Raag Singhal did not immediately schedule a hearing on Caldwell's request to stop counting absentee ballots received after the polls closed. No hearing time has been entered on the docket for the case and Caldwell's attorneys did not immediately respond to an email request for information on scheduling a hearing on the emergency request.

More: Thousands of provisional ballots could flip Florida races now too close to call

The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections’ office must provide copies of duplicate ballots to the Scott campaign by noon.

Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher requested an emergency hearing in a lawsuit brought by the Scott campaign for copies of damaged and duplicate ballots. On Friday, the judge overseeing the suit, Krista Marx, ordered Bucher to provide the campaign the ballots by 10 a.m. Saturday.

But late Friday Bucher filed a motion for reconsideration. During the hearing, Bucher said it would take two to three days for them to find and provide duplicate ballots because they’ve already been mixed in with regular ballots.

Marx told Scott’s attorneys during the hearing that she knew Bucher was not going to make the noon deadline, but expected Bucher to comply with the order since Palm Beach County has already completed counting ballots.

Scott’s attorney, Aliette Rodz, said the hearing should have never taken place and Bucher should have done more to find the ballots under the initial deadline.

Bucher declined to talk with reporters, saying the office had work to get done. As she walked out of the hearing, a small group of protesters began to yell at her, calling her a “criminal.” Both a spokeswoman for the Scott campaign and the Republican National Committee stood next to the protesters. </s> TALLALHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the potential recounts in Florida's U.S. Senate and governor elections (all times local):

The deadline to submit unofficial vote tallies in Florida's election has passed.

County elections supervisors had until noon Saturday to submit results. Now the state must announce whether recounts are needed in the U.S. Senate and governor races.

As the deadline arrived, Republican former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis led Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by less than 0.5 percentage points in the governor's race, which would require a machine recount of ballots.

In the Senate race, Republican Gov. Rick Scott's lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson was less than 0.25 percentage points, which would require a hand recount of ballots in which tabulation machines couldn't detect a vote.
Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner orders machine recounts in the U.S. Senate race and the state's governor and agriculture commissioner races as required by law when the lead is less than 0.5 percent. Results are due by 3 p.m. EST Thursday. Should the results still be within 0.25 percentage points, a manual recount will be triggered, with results due on November 18.