Only in Florida: The latest recount drama

Lawsuits and accusations of vote tampering are firing up an already heated recount battle in the Florida races for governor and U.S. Senate, with Republicans in the lead in unofficial results. The Florida secretary of state on Saturday ordered recounts in both of those elections and that of the state commissioner of agriculture. The current margin between Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson in the Senate race is just .14 percentage points. A gap of .41 points separates Republican gubernatorial hopeful U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis and his Democratic opponent, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.

Scott and Nelson have both sued over perceived mismanagement of the election, and Scott asked law enforcement Monday to impound Broward County’s voting machines when they weren’t being used in the recount. The final tally is due 3 p.m. Thursday, though some ballots might still have to be counted by hand afterward. President Donald Trump on Monday called for the recount to end, tweeting, “An honest vote count is no longer possible—ballots massively infected.”

Eighteen years ago, an infamous recount in Florida left the winner of the presidential election undecided for more than a month. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately decided the vote favored Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore. The Florida secretary of state’s office was unaware of any other time either a governor’s or U.S. Senate race required a recount, let alone both in the same election.