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MIAMI — In the gallows humor of Florida politics, the joke among campaign staffers and news reporters has been running for 18 years, ever since the traumatic presidential election of 2000: Don’t make any plans for immediately after Election Day. You might get caught in a dreaded recount.

Well.

This year’s recount for Senate, governor and agriculture commissioner was how I ended up sprawled on the floor of the Broward County elections office in Lauderhill, Fla., one day this week, scarfing down takeout Trinidadian chicken curry that a fellow reporter had picked up for me as I read the latest court briefing and made calls to campaign sources.

Recount lawyers milled about, awaiting the next official update on the status of the ballot sorting. Television cameras ran live streams of elections staffers going through the tedious motions of preparing some 700,000 ballots to run through counting machines again.