Florida Sen. Ben Nelson is calling for a recount, after tallies show Gov. Rick Scott leading him by fewer than 35,000 votes.

'We are proceeding to a recount,' Nelson said Wednesday, following a nail-biter election where the vote count continued into the night.

Florida law provides for an automatic recount if the margin is less than 0.5 per cent of the vote. As things stand, Scott's margin is at 0.4 per cent of the vote.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the gap was 34,537 votes out of more than 8 million cast.

Scott's campaign says the race is done.

'This race is over,'Scott spokesman Chris Hartline said, WTSP reported. 'It's a sad way for Bill Nelson to end his career. He is desperately trying to hold on to something that no longer exists.'

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, claimed victory Tuesday night

Either way, it won't affect control of the Senate, which Republicans already achieved Tuesday night by knocking off Democratic incumbents and preserving all but one of their own.

The state-ordered recount raised the prospect of another legal battle in Florida, home to the bitter recount court fight that decided the 2000 presidential election.

The Nelson camp said Florida's 67 county supervisors would recheck their tallies, while the campaign would reach out to voters unable to cast ballots due to lack of ID or other issues.

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is expected to address the media on Wednesday

Floridians went to bed Tuesday without knowing whether Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson had held on to his seat or lost to Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

Scott led by less than half a percentage point with nearly all votes counted: leading by about 34,435 votes out of more than 8 million cast.

The margin, if it sticks, would trigger a mandatory recount in the state.

The razor thin margin means every possible vote becomes critical, including overseas and military ballots, provisional ballots and vote by mail ballots that have defects such as a missing or non-matching signature.

Marco Rubio, the Sunshine State's other senator, tweeted after midnight that the race was, in fact, over.

'Bill Nelson has conceded to our new Senator & my new colleague [Rick] @ScottforFlorida,' he wrote. 'What exactly is CNN & other outlets waiting for to call the race? We don't need CNN to swear him in to the Senate, but its kind of annoying anyways.'

Scott and Rubio would together become Florida's first all-Republican U.S. Senate delegation in more than a century.

Confusion reigned throughout the night as votes were tallied.

Scott, who dropped $50 million of his own funds in the contest, claimed victory just before midnight.

It's just hard to believe that we're here now,' he said. 'Now that this campaign is behind us that's where we're going to leave it.'

However, the Associated Press had not called the race as of Wednesday morning.

There was a belief Nelson conceded to his GOP rival, but the campaign put out a statement in the early morning hours clarifying that Nelson was still waiting for all the ballots to be counted.

President Donald Trump backed Scott, a wealthy former healthcare executive who, like the president, poured giant amounts of money into his own campaign

'This is obviously not the result Senator Nelson's campaign has worked hard for,' the Democrat's campaign manager Pete Mitchell said just after midnight.

'The senator will be making a full statement tomorrow to thank all those who rallied for his cause.'

One reason for Tuesday's confusion was that Florida election law requires an automatic recount in contests where the margin of victory is less than one-half of one percent.

That number would work out to 40,276 – which means Nelson's lead sets in that margin.

Dan McLaughlin, the Nelson campaign's manager, told supporters late Tuesday that he and the senator were looking at potential 'irregularities' with votes

Sen. Marco Rubio insisted that Nelson had conceded the race to Scott, and vented on Twitter at CNN for refusing to declare Scott the winner

Scott, term-limited out of the governor's mansion, didn't court President Donald Trump's support but also didn't shy away from it.

During his final campaign rallies, the president tore into Nelson. His predecessor, Barack Obama, stumped in Miami and called Nelson 'my friend.'

Trump claimed Nelson never called 'to ask for my help' with Florida's problems and hailed Scott's response to hurricanes.

'I am here a lot and I never see Senator Nelson until six months before the election,' Trump said.

Scott had to pour $51 million of his own money into the race to stay competitive. The wealthy former healthcare executive raised another $14 million. Nelson's war chest held $25 million.

Well over $100 million was spent overall on the contes, much of it on television ads.

Outside groups spent even more heavily on attack ads and caustic mailers trying to impact the result.