Broward County submits votes to state, begins machine recount

Broward County has started its recount due by Thursday. All day, people have protested at the supervisor of elections department because the county was the last to turn in its results.

The Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office said its votes have been counted and sent to Tallahassee Saturday.

“All of the ballots cast have been processed, and the results have been transmitted to Tallahassee within the required time frame,” said Dottie Joseph of Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office.

Even though the unofficial results from Broward have been submitted, protesters from both sides are still gathered outside the supervisor of elections office. Many of them are still unhappy about the way this process was handled in the days after the election.

Election officials are trying to tone down the controversy, as three statewide races head to a recount.

Broward became the center of a political firestorm after thousands of ballots from the heavily Democratic county began trickled in days after the midterm election.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the Republican candidate for Senate, and fellow Republicans are in outrage toward election departments in South Florida.

“Every Floridian should be concerned there may be rampant fraud happening in Palm Beach and Broward counties,” Scott said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said it has not any reported instances of fraud. FDLE is not investigating either Palm Beach County or Broward election departments. The Florida Department of State said it has monitors who did not witness fraud either.

There is bipartisan agreement Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes and her office missed the mark in the days after the election by reporting their departments results late.

Snipes’ lawyer admitted there is room for improvement.

“I think that Dr. Snipes has always looked after elections and finds out how she can improve the electoral process,” Attorney Eugene Pettis said. “She’s certainly going to do that this time, and when she does that, she needs to communicate that to the public as to how she’s going to make it stronger going forward.”

As three statewide races move to mandatory recounts — Senate, governor and commissioner of agriculture — voters are split on possible effects on the final outcomes. If the results of either of the three races are within a quarter of a percentage point after the mandatory machine recounts are tabulated Thursday, the state will order hand recounts for those elections that meet that margin.

The late results surprise Andrew Gillum, Democratic candidate for Florida governor, who conceded on election night, but has since changed his stance since the mandatory recount was ordered.

“Well, let me say clearly, I am replacing my words of concession with an uncompromising and unapologetic call that we count every single vote,” Gillum said.