New results given to the state favor Democrats Andrew Gillum, Bill Nelson and Nikki Fried.

Palm Beach County's election supervisor said Saturday afternoon that the Thursday afternoon deadline to complete machine recounts of four races will be "impossible" to meet.

Supervisor Susan Bucher started the recount process at 5 p.m. Secretary of State Ken Detzner ordered the recounts after elections supervisors statewide sent in their unofficial counts to him by noon.

Related: Florida election: State orders recount in governor, Senate races

But even with bringing in extra county workers to help with the recount process, Bucher said that they will not meet the 3 p.m. Thursday deadline ordered by Detzner.

"I will tell you that the secretary and the legislature and the governor have been extremely aware that with the election equipment we have, the potential of conducting all of these is impossible," Bucher said. "We have asked the secretary if there was any consideration to extend the deadline and he said 'no.'"

Attorneys, Democrats, Republicans, and curious residents anxiously filled the viewing areas of a courtroom Saturday and then the tabulation center in Riviera Beach. Far away in Tallahassee, Detzner ordered recounts in six total races, four of which are important to Palm Beach County residents: the governor's race, the U.S. Senate race, the race for agriculture commissioner and the race for state House District 89.

At the end of the day, Bucher faced two deadlines: One from a circuit judge and one from Detzner, the secretary of state.

Once the machine recounts are completed, if a gap separating the candidates in a race is by .25 percent or less, then a manual recount of votes is necessary. The race where that is most likely to happen is the statehouse District 89 race in which Mike Caruso, a Republican, leads Jim Bonfiglio, a Democrat, by 37 votes, according to results sent to the state on Saturday morning by Bucher.

>>RELATED: Broward County on Saturday sends in their updated numbers to the state

The second deadline Bucher faced Saturday was set by circuit court Judge Krista Marx. The judge Saturday morning ordered Bucher to retrieve and present to the county's canvassing board by noon duplicate ballots that are in question. Duplicate ballots occur when ballots can’t be sent through tabulation machines. Those are then copied, or duplicated, if they were damaged, or if voters didn’t fill them out properly, or if the individual "over-voted," meaning they voted for more than one candidate in a race.

Marx had initially ordered that Bucher present the ballots by 10 a.m. Saturday but Bucher argued that it could take two to three days to comply because staff would have to go through nearly 1,000 boxes. Marx extended the deadline to noon while acknowledging “they’re not gonna meet it.” But Marx said there must be “substantial compliance” with her order.

By Saturday evening, Bucher said she didn't meet Marx's noon deadline, but expected to be able to soon.

"We have tried really hard to substantially comply," she said.

Related: Florida elections: GOP, Dems fight in Palm Beach County court

Democrats see gains after new vote totals submitted

Bucher did meet a separate noon deadline, however, which was submitting the county’s unofficial voting results to the state. All candidates in the four races saw a bump in votes, with Democrats seeing a larger increase. These are totals submitted to the state Saturday.

U.S. Senate: Rick Scott 244,776 votes; Bill Nelson 343,786 votes. Scott saw a 1,291 bump while Nelson saw 2,154 more votes.Governor: Ron DeSantis 240,950 votes; Andrew Gillum 341,211 votes. DeSantis got 1,089 more votes while Gillum got 1,997 more.Agriculture commissioner: Nikki Fried 340,173 votes; Matt Caldwell 235,285 votes. Caldwell got a 1,259 vote bump while Fried got 2,082.House District 89: Mike Caruso 39,228 votes; Jim Bonfiglio 39,191 votes. Caruso got 235 more votes; Bonfiglio 322.

While Bucher’s main office in suburban West Palm Beach was closed Saturday, Democrats and Republicans still held rallies outside her building.

About a dozen Republicans gathered, waving Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis signs while trying to challenge a chanting group of at least 60 rival Democrats.

Luis Rivera, a Hypoluxo resident, said all the questions raised about voting has increased “doubt in this process.”

“Whenever the Democratic Party dominates, you find election racketeering,” he said.

The hits came from the Democrats, too.

Said Bob Averack of Delray Beach: “This is about the United States of America and what brave men and women have fought for for years.” He added that Republicans are “taking away democracy.”

Joined by the group of residents on the Democrat side were Palm Beach County Commissioner Mack Bernard, state Sen. Bobby Powell and Riviera Beach City Councilman Terence Davis. The Democrats waived Nelson and Gillum signs and chanted "Every vote counts."

Republicans also gathered outside the Palm Beach County Sheriff's headquarters complex in suburban West Palm Beach where the Saturday hearing was held in a courtroom usually for first appearance hearings.

“You’re trying to steal votes,” one man yelled at Bucher as she left. “You’re stealing the election. We, the people, won’t allow it.”

“You need to be jailed, woman,” one woman barked.

The duplication of ballots issue

The duplicating of ballots issue was first debated in court on Friday when Gov. Scott's attorneys claimed Bucher allowed election workers to duplicate ballots without having witnesses watch as required by law.

In her petition for Saturday morning's emergency hearing, Bucher said she could not comply with the original 10 a.m. deadline to retrieve the ballots because they have “already been intermixed into the stream of ballots and are already included in the vote tally.”

While Scott's attorneys claimed there are about 650 ballots in question, Bucher said the number was "much more substantial."

Marx questioned the way Bucher's office duplicated the ballots and said her research shows a canvassing board should make determinations in duplicating ballots.

Bucher said a staff of about 10 to 12, including senior managers, permanent and temporary workers, duplicated the ballots while Bucher, who is a member of the canvassing board, was present — and if there was a problem, they would give the ballot to the canvassing board. Senior managers reviewed the work, she said.

Bucher said the process follows state statute that says: “The canvassing board may employ such clerical help to assist with the work of the board as it deems necessary, with at least one member of the board present at all times, until the canvass of the returns is completed.”

The duplications were done in tandem, Bucher said, and never by one person. She said the procedure is lawful and she adopted it this year from larger counties, including Orange and Hillsborough.

Bucher said she and her staff figured out plans of how they would go through the ballots to find the duplicates, but hadn’t actually gone through them before Saturday’s hearing.

Clearly annoyed, Marx said it appears Bucher has done "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" since Friday to comply with her order.

But by Saturday early evening, Bucher shared good news: By the time Bucher came back from the hearing, her staff told her they had already started to retrieve the duplicated ballots without her knowing. And, she no longer expected the job to take up to three days.

She estimates the number of duplicated ballots to be about 9,800 but not all will have to go before the canvassing board because some already were there when staff had a question during the duplication process.

“I anticipate we can conclude with that today and provide the judge with a status hearing and let her know we gave every effort to meet as close to that deadline as possible,” Bucher said.

Staff writer Joe Capozzi contributed to this story.