Florida Gov. Rick Scott is officially on his way to Washington to serve in the Senate after machine and hand recounts showed him leading by at least 10,000 votes.
Scott, a two-term Republican governor, was facing three-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in a race that saw numerous lawsuits and accusations of voter fraud.
It took the state of Florida 12 days to finally count all the ballots it determined were valid. After everything was resolved, Scott had the clear edge. Nelson conceded the win.
“Now the campaign truly is behind us, and that’s where we need to leave it,” Scott told Fox News. “We must do what Americans have always done: come together for the good of our state and our country.”
President Trump tweeted his congratulations to the soon-to-be senator around noon on Nov. 18.
First results showed that Scott had a 56,000 vote lead—within the half-percent limit that triggered an automatic machine recount. After the machine recount, Scott’s lead was down to 12,603 ballots that triggered a mandatory hand recount.
The results of that hand recount showed Scott to be the winner.
Nelson released a taped concession statement around 3 p.m. on Nov. 18. According to US News, Nelson called Scott some 20 minutes earlier to offer his concession personally.
“I just spoke with Senator Bill Nelson, who graciously conceded, and I thanked him for his years of public service,” Scott announced, according to the Guardian.
Scott’s win marks the first time the state of Florida has had two Republican senators serving simultaneously. Sen. Marco Rubio was elected to his second term in 2016.
Three Close Races
The election was one of three that triggered automatic recounts under Florida law.
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum conceded victory in the governor’s race to his opponent state Rep. Ron DeSantis on Saturday, Nov. 17.
President Trump graciously congratulated Gillum for his efforts.
Congratulations to Andrew Gillum on having run a really tough and competitive race for Governor of the Great State of Florida. He will be a strong Democrat warrior long into the future – a force to reckon with!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2018
The third close race, for agriculture commissioner, looks to be going to Democrat Nikki Field, who leads Republican Matt Caldwell by about 6,000 votes, WFLA reported.
Florida’s Election Incompetence
Two Florida counties, Broward and Palm Beach, have a history of being unable to manage elections. The worst offender is Broward County, where Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes has held power—and failed to deliver timely results—since 2003.
Snipes drew criticism from all quarters as lost ballot boxes turned up in school utility closets and the back seats of rented cars. The county failed to upload its machine recount results by the deadline, meaning that the time and money spent on re-entering every ballot was totally wasted.
Snipes might be stepping down, Fox News reported. Indeed on Nov. 13, Snipes announced, “It is time to move on.”
She then qualified her remarks, saying, “I haven’t finalized that. I’ll just check with my family. They’ll tell me what I’m doing.”
Palm Beach County also failed to get its machine recount votes in on time. Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher told the New York Times that there were “dozens of precincts missing a significant number” of votes when all the ballots were re-entered into tabulating machines.
Thousands of votes that were counted in the initial tally were lost during the machine recount—which turned out not to matter because the two precincts were not able to submit results by the deadline.
Broward County proved unable to determine which candidate had been marked on countless ballots.
