Florida election recount: Palm Beach County misses 3 p.m. recount deadline

Ali Schmitz | Treasure Coast Newspapers

PALM BEACH COUNTY — Palm Beach County has missed the state’s deadline to recount votes, Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher said Thursday.

Bucher said with a few extra hours, her staff might have been able to make the 3 p.m. deadline set by the Secretary of State’s office.

Results sent to the state will be the original Saturday count. Palm Beach staffers are prepared to hand recount all under/over votes on the Secretary of State’s order. There are just under 6,000 ballots that fall under manual recount.

Bucher called praised her staff’s “heroic effort” in trying to meet the deadline.

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Palm Beach County elections supervisor discusses prep for hand recount Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher discusses what needs to be done before her staff can begin the hand recount in statewide races.

“I have a great team," Bucher said. "I think that we just got stuck with some mechanical issues that were inherited.”

Bucher blamed faulty, aging equipment for missing the deadline. The equipment crashed Tuesday night, and has delayed the recount process since.

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‘Slim’ chance Fla. county makes recount deadline Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher said in a press conference that there are slim chances her office can meet the recount deadline. (Nov. 15)

Palm Beach County first got its voting machines in 2007. The machines use an optical scanning software that only allows each individual race to be scanned. There are only eight machines in Florida's third-largest county to scan nearly 600,000 ballots cast.

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The county is now preparing for the Secretary of State to order a manual recount of 5,900 ballots with over-votes and under-votes in the county.

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"It was not for lack of human effort. The human effort was there,” Bucher said.

Bucher said she takes “full responsibility” for the missed deadline.

Bucher stopped the recount overnight and sent home an IT manager responsible for maintaining the machines. Bucher said they had been awake for nearly 48 hours straight.

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Bucher said her staff will begin a hand recount of under- and over-votes at 11 a.m. Friday. Until then, they will continue to do the machine recount of the race.

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But there could be changes in the county's results.

The Bill Nelson campaign has filed a lawsuit that would require the county to complete a hand recount of all ballots by noon Sunday.

In the complaint, Nelson's attorney's questions the county's machines and says a hand recount is needed.

"Given the inability of Defendants to conduct a meaningful, timely or reliable

machine recount, the only practicable way for Defendants to comply with this statutory mandate and protect the voters of Palm Beach County from direct and irreparable injury is to immediately conduct a full hand recount," the attorneys say in the complaint.