Florida's race for governor could be headed for a mandatory recount.

Florida's race for governor could be headed for a mandatory recount after late-counted ballots shrank Republican Ron DeSantis' lead over Democrat Andrew Gillum to less than 0.5 percent.

With ballots still being counted in heavily Democratic Broward and Palm Beach counties, the Florida Division of Elections also updated its website today to show Democrat Nikki Fried taking a small lead over Republican Matt Caldwell in the race for Florida agriculture commissioner. That race was already within recount range, but with Caldwell leading.

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Florida's U.S. Senate race was already within recount range as well. The latest figures show it getting even closer, with Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson pulling within 0.22 percent of his Republican challenger, Gov. Rick Scott, who declared victory on Tuesday night.

Florida law calls for a recount for any race within 0.5 percent when counties submit returns to the state by noon on Saturday.

In the governor's race, figures posted this afternoon showed DeSantis holding a lead of 0.47 percent or 38,515 ballots out of more than 8.2 million cast. On Tuesday night, DeSantis' lead was 0.6 percent and Gillum gave a concession speech.

“I was honored Tuesday night to be elected 46th Governor of the State of Florida," DeSantis said in a statement released by his campaign. "The results of the election were clear. I am now focused on the transition effort and will allow the legal efforts regarding the election to proceed, as is necessary, as the process unfolds.”

Gillum has retained attorney Barry Richard, who represented George W. Bush in Florida's 2000 presidential recount.

"On Tuesday night, the Gillum for Governor campaign operated with the best information available about the number of outstanding ballots left to count," the campaign said in a statement today. "Since that time, it has become clear there are many more uncounted ballots than was originally reported. Our campaign, along with our attorney Barry Richard, is monitoring the situation closely and is ready for any outcome, including a state-mandated recount. Mayor Gillum started his campaign for the people, and we are committed to ensuring every single vote in Florida is counted."

The first phase of a recount in a statewide race is for each county elections office to feed ballots through tabulators a second time. Ballots with "overvotes" (when a voter selects two or more candidates in the same race) and those with "undervotes" (when the tabulator detects that no vote was cast in a race) in the race in question are then set aside.

If, after the first machine recount, the margin in the race is 0.25 percent or less, it triggers a manual recount in which the overvotes and undervotes from that race are examined to see if it can be determined that a valid vote was cast.

When these ballots are examined in a manual recount, Florida law says, "A vote for a candidate or ballot measure shall be counted if there is a clear indication on the ballot that the voter has made a definite choice."

One example of an undervote that might be counted as a vote in a manual recount: A voter circles a candidate's name on the ballot rather than filling in the arrow or oval next to the candidate's name. A scanning machine would not detect any vote, but a canvassing board could determine that the circled name shows "clear indication" of a choice.