Sen. Bill Nelson released a statement Wednesday morning announcing that he was disappointed in the election night results. | Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Elections Nelson, Scott race headed to recount

The razor-thin Florida Senate race between Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and the state’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott is headed to a recount, Nelson’s campaign announced Wednesday morning.

With more than 8 million votes cast, the two candidates are separated by fewer than 35,000 votes, with Scott holding the slim lead. Nelson’s campaign sent out a statement at 1 a.m. saying it was “not the result Senator Nelson and his campaign had worked so hard for,” but that the statement was "not a concession.”


In a followup statement at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nelson’s campaign announced that overnight the lead shrunk to a 0.4 percent lead for Scott, which is within the one-half percent margin to trigger a recount under state law.

Florida is not new to the election recount national spotlight. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court had decide the outcome in Florida in that year’s presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Ultimately the court settled in favor of Bush, who went on to win the state by 537 votes and serve two terms as president.

Scott spokesman Chris Hartline hammered the move.

“This race is over. It’s a sad way for Bill Nelson to end his career,” Hartline said in an email. “He is desperately trying to hold onto something that no longer exists.”

Florida’s 67 counties now must recheck their tallies, a process they initially have until noon on Nov. 10 to complete. In addition, Nelson’s campaign is sending monitors to every county across the state. The campaign is already working with well-known Democratic attorney Marc Elias with the firm Perkins Coie.

In the statement, Elias hinted at some areas of the state that will get the campaign’s focus. He noted a Tampa Bay Times story where Madison County’s GOP Supervisor of Election Thomas Hardee, a Scott appointee, was quoted saying he wanted to meet with Nelson to “eat his lunch” over claims Nelson made that Russians had been interfering in Florida’s 2018 midterm elections.

“I was trying to give him as much of a fit as I could,” Hardee told the newspaper.

Elias singled that comment out and said they would be watching supervisors across the state.

"We expect the supervisors, regardless of their party affiliation, will discharge their constitutional duties," Elias said.

