Florida U.S. Senate race between Rick Scott, Bill Nelson could be heading for recount

Florida’s hotly contested race for the U.S. Senate could be heading for an automatic recount.

Republican Rick Scott holds a 30,239-vote lead over incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson out of more than 8.1 million ballots cast for a difference of 0.38%, according to unofficial returns posted by the state Division of Elections.

State law triggers a recount if the difference in a race is less than 0.5%. So if the returns stand, the state will count the ballots again. There was no comment from state officials early Wednesday.

The official notice for a recall would come from secretary of state Ken Detzner, a Scott appointee. Calls to his office were not immediately returned Wednesday.

Nelson could forgo a recount by writing Detzner to concede the race, but in a statement Wednesday, he pledged to move forward.

“We are proceeding to a recount,” Nelson said.

Unofficial results aren’t typically finalized until the Saturday after the election, so a recount might not begin until then.

Under Florida law, a machine recount is conducted when the margin of victory is 0.5% or less. If the margin is 0.25% or less after the machine recount, a manual recount is conducted.

“This is obviously not the result Sen. Nelson’s campaign has worked hard for,” said Pete Mitchell, Nelson’s campaign manager, at an election party in Orlando. “The senator will be making a full statement tomorrow to thank all those who rallied for his cause.”

The campaign had been waiting Tuesday night on returns from Broward County, where numbers could not be input electronically in seven precincts and had to be driven to county elections offices to be manually entered via thumb drives.

Those late numbers appear to have edged Nelson close to the 0.5-point recount margins from what had been a 0.7- to 0.8-point margin for most of the night.

Scott did appear to claim victory at his celebration in Naples.

“It’s hard to believe we’re here tonight,” he said. “This campaign is behind us and that’s where we’re going to leave it.”

At the time he spoke, Scott’s lead was slightly greater than the 0.5% margin required for a recount.

“This race is over,” Scott spokesman Chris Hartline said in a statement Wednesday. “It’s a sad way for Bill Nelson to end his career. He is desperately trying to hold on to something that no longer exists.”