Two days after Election Day, the race for Florida's agriculture commissioner is still not decided.

In fact, the margin between North Fort Myers real estate appraiser Matt Caldwell and Fort Lauderdale attorney Nikki Fried has grown even slimmer and shifted in Fried's favor.

The most updated numbers Thursday afternoon show Democrat Fried leading Republican Caldwell by 571 votes as of 5 p.m.

That close margin is likely to trigger an automatic recount and potentially a manual count. An automatic recount happens when the difference is less than half a percentage point, and a manual count possibly at less than 0.25 percent.

Caldwell, the Republican candidate, garnered 4,018,464 votes compared with the 4,019,035 ballots cast for Democrat Fried.

The deadline for county elections officials to report unofficial results to the state is noon Saturday.

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On Wednesday, Brian Swensen, spokesman for the Caldwell campaign, said the campaign would go through the mandated recount and did not expect the results to change.

On Thursday, however, after votes trickling in turned the result in Fried's favor, a Caldwell spokesman, Brian Swensen, released the following statement: "We have watched Brenda Snipes and the Broward Supervisor of Elections demonstrate gross incompetence and potential corruption election cycle after election cycle. Over the past two days, Snipes' office has refused to give either an accurate count of outstanding ballots or where they come from, all while the Democratic candidates continue to pick up tens of thousands of new votes. Ms. Snipes’ office has a record of incompetence and illegal behavior. Our legal team is going to pursue every option to ensure election results are counted fairly, accurately, and legally. Matt Caldwell will be Florida’s next Commissioner of Agriculture and the will of the voters will be upheld."

Fried's camp disagreed.

“Since the first returns came in on election night, we have said that seeing through this process to the end, ensuring every vote is counted so the voices of Floridians are heard, and their will is respected, is the top priority,” Fried said. “Our support has grown, and we are now leading by just under 600 votes — Florida supervisors and canvassing boards are doing an incredible job of ensuring everyone's voices are heard and the process is fair and transparent. We're confident that by Saturday, when final results are certified, our lead will have grown, and the voters’ choice in the race for agriculture commissioner will be clear.”

The agriculture commissioner race mirrored the governor and Senate contests but was closer than the other two Cabinet races where the winners won about 52 percent of the vote.

Talk of a recount was also rampant in the U.S. Senate race pitting Gov. Rick Scott, the Republican candidate, against incumbent Bill Nelson, where the vote margin was 0.22 percent with 17,350 votes separating the candidates.

In the governor's race, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate who had conceded the race, was just a 0.47 percent margin behind Republican victor Ron DeSantis. However, even with the concession, the margin drop under 0.5 percent would trigger an automatic recount.

Both Democrats have hired recount attorneys. Nelson selected Marc Elias, while Gillum selected Barry Richard, who was the Bush campaign expert in the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida.

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