ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Election workers in Orange County began recounting ballots early Monday to comply with a statewide recount ordered by the Florida secretary of state.
The races for U.S. Senate, governor and agriculture commissioner were deemed too close to call after each county submitted their first unofficial election returns by Saturday.
State law mandates a machine recount for contests with a half of a percent margin of victory and a hand recount for contests that are within a 1/4 of a percent.
In Orange County, the race for the commission seat in District 4 was ordered for both a machine and hand recount.
"Machines will kick out the over-votes and the under-votes for that contest," Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said. "We'll go back precinct by precinct and review those to see if there are any valid votes."
After the recount for District 4 is finished, workers will begin processing ballots for the three statewide races in question.
For every county in Florida, the results of the machine recount are due by Thursday at 3 p.m. A hand recount will then be ordered if any of the races remain within the 1/4 percent threshold.
Each county must submit their final election results by Sunday.