Today, there are two basic phases for a statewide recount: an automatic recount by machine and, if needed, a manual recount on specific ballots. | Alan Diaz/AP Photo Democrats fear Florida recount is already amiss

TALLAHASSEE — Florida is in statewide recount mania. So far, five races are headed for review: The U.S. Senate race, a state cabinet race, a state Senate race and two state House races. And the governor’s race, with an excruciatingly close vote tally, could also be forced into a recount.

This is all new territory. And Democrats are worried it's starting off on the wrong foot.


“Florida Democrats are reaching out to every Supervisor of Elections office to receive data on provisional ballots to ensure that everyone who voted has the information they need for their vote to be counted,” Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Juan Peñalosa said in an email Wednesday. “This is an urgent matter and we are hoping they will comply with our legal requests to ensure a fair election.”

The party had received partial data from just 22 counties by Wednesday afternoon, and the others have refused to give the Democrats any information, Peñalosa said. Provisional ballots are due by 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Peñalosa’s concern underscores just how unprecedented this will be. Contrary to what many believe, Florida has never been through a statewide recount — not even during the infamous 2000 election, when Al Gore lost the presidency to George Bush by 537 Florida votes. A statewide recount was ordered at the time by the state Supreme Court, but that order was blocked by the federal Supreme Court.

“The law at that time provided for county by county recounts. Gore asked for it in four counties and selected [those counties] based on two criteria — that they had heavily voted in his favor and that there were enough votes that it could make a difference,” Barry Richard, a longtime Tallahassee attorney who represented Bush during the 2000 recount, said on Wednesday. “The systems are a lot simpler now.”

Democratic attorney Mark Herron, who wrote the recount petitions for Gore in 2000, took exception to Richard’s explanation for why those four counties were chosen, but not to the description of the process at the time.

In addition to the U.S. Senate election, in which Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson appears to have fallen to Republican Gov. Rick Scott, the full list of races headed for a recount also includes: the elections for state commissioner of agriculture, state Senate District 18, and state House districts 26 and 89. The governor’s race, in which Republican Ron DeSantis appears to have edged out Democrat Andrew Gillum, could get there soon if the margin continues to shrink.

Today, there are two basic phases for a statewide recount: an automatic recount by machine and, if needed, a manual recount on specific ballots.

Here’s how the whole process works, according to the Florida Department of State’s 2018 timeline.

While the election was on Tuesday, ballots won’t be fully counted until Saturday at noon. After those ballots are counted, any federal, state or multicounty race that is separated by .5 percent, or less, will automatically undergo a machine recount — meaning, the ballots are literally run through voting machines a second time.

The machine recount is due by 3 p.m. on Nov. 15. Any race that is separated by .25 percent, or less, will automatically undergo a manual recount, which must be wrapped up by Nov. 18.

In the event of a manual recount, the only ballots that will be scrutinized are those where there were either too many or too few candidates selected for the specific race at stake. Those could be tens of thousands of ballots, but not 8 million, which is about how many people voted in the midterms.

Each county will handle its own recount. A “county canvassing board” — a body made up of the local supervisor of elections, a county court judge and the chair of the board of county commissioners — will appoint at least two counters who are not candidates in the race at hand and who represent at least two state parties.

Cases in which the counters cannot agree on for whom the voter intended to cast their ballot will be determined by the canvassing board. The boards will send their final vote totals for the manually recounted races to the state by Nov. 18 at noon.

The state Elections Canvassing Commission — the governor and two members of the Florida cabinet selected by the governor — will certify the results in a 9 a.m. meeting at the state Capitol on Nov. 20.