Gillum Campaign Watches Possible Florida Recount Closely

TALLAHASSEE, FL — With possible voting issues coming to light in Florida's election, the gubernatorial campaign of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is paying close attention to the process, including a potential recount that might affect the Democrat's final vote tally.

All of the returns reported Tuesday night were unofficial real-time totals based on returns compiled by election officials across Florida's 67 counties. They had not yet been certified as official, a process that is playing out county by county throughout the third most populous state.

"Our campaign, along with our attorney, Barry Richard, is monitoring the situation closely and is ready for any outcome, including a state-mandated recount," said communications director Johanna Cervone with the Gillum campaign Thursday. "Mayor Gillum started his campaign for the people, and we are committed to ensuring every single vote in Florida is counted."

Concerns have been raised in both Palm Beach and Broward Counties with respect to votes that had not yet been counted or that were counted incorrectly, according to election attorney Marc Elias, who is working with Florida Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson's campaign on a possible recount with respect to Nelson's razor-close Senate race against Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott. Scott claimed victory but Nelson never made a concession speech.

The attorney's past election clients have included former Democrat Sens. Harry Reid and Al Franken as well as dozens of other elected officials. See also U.S. Sen. Nelson Waits For Recount; Gov. Scott Wants To Move On

Unofficial returns as of Thursday afternoon showed Gillum trailing former Congressman Ron DeSantis by a count of 4,069,451 votes to 4,030,936.

That is only a difference of 38,515 votes, much closer than it was when Gillum stepped up to the podium shortly before 11 p.m. on Election Day to make his concession speech.

Saying "unethical liberals" were trying to steal the election in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, Scott on Thursday night ordered an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He also announced a lawsuit against both counties.

"The people of Florida deserve fairness and transparency and the supervisors are failing to give it to us," Scott said. "Every Floridian should be concerned there may be rampant fraud happening in Palm Beach and Broward Counties. And the Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes has a history of acting in bad faith."

Florida election law mandates a machine recount when the separation of votes between candidates is at a statutory threshold of one half of one percent.

"On Tuesday night, the Gillum for governor campaign operated with the best information available about the number of outstanding ballots left to count," added Cervone. "Since that time, it has become clear there are many more uncounted ballots than was originally reported."

Elias said that there are a "significant" number of ballots across the state that had not yet been counted as of Thursday.

"We know that in Palm Beach County there are in excess of 10,000 ballots that are going to be reviewed as part of the canvass process because they have stray marks or other writings that kept them from being properly scanned and counted," he said in a conference call with journalists.

"In Broward County, we know that they are still counting," he said. "They were counting late into the night last night and as you know, that increased Sen. Nelson and the other Democrats' on the ticket, their vote share. I expect that that process will continue, and we will see further results there."

Elias also said a cursory check of unofficial election results in Florida raised concerns with respect to ballots that were only partially counted. This phenomenon is referred to as under voting.

"Under voting is where there are more votes cast for one office, then for other offices," the attorney said. "What is unusual is to under vote the top of the ticket —in fact, not only is it unusual, I can't think of another instance — in which you have fewer votes for the Senate candidate than for down ballot candidates."

While some Floridians possibly showed up only to vote for the governor's race, Elias said he has seen instances where people voted for lesser offices and skipped over the Senate race, which amounts to a red flag.

For example, in Broward County, a total of 676,706 votes had been cast for all candidates in the Senate race, according to the latest information available as of Thursday night.

More total votes, however, were cast for the governor's race, the state attorney general race, the chief financial officer race and even for the commission of agriculture race. By comparison, more votes were cast in nearby Miami-Dade County for the Senate race than any of the other races.

"If you look at the results, it's not just an under vote with Senate vs. governor," Elias explained. "It's actually an under vote with respect to Senate vs. attorney general and some of the other down ballot races. And that frankly is not plausible. There simply isn't an explanation for that."

He said that the new votes added by Broward County Wednesday night did not appear to indicate widespread cases of under votes in Broward.

"What we are likely going to see in a hand recount is a whole bunch of ballots that for one reason or another — it could be due to calibration issues or ballot marking issues — were not counted that will be counted as part of a hand recount."

He said Democrats are likely to receive a significant boost in votes from Congressional Districts 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25.

"On the marking issues, if you go and look at past recounts, you see that voters mark ballots in a whole host of ways, where voter intent is clear, but where machines can't pick them up," he said. "Partially filled in ovals, X's and ovals circling the names and the like. I think you'll see that Sen. Nelson, and frankly all of the Democrats, will benefit from that."

He said in nearby Miami-Dade County, Democrats are taking a close look at rejection rates for mail ballots.

"In Miami-Dade there's a history of rejection of signatures of mail ballots that disproportionately impacts Hispanic, Latino and African-American voters," Elias said. "There's no good reason why that would be the case. There's no natural explanation for that. That's something we're looking at very carefully as we look at the rejection rates statewide, but particularly in Miami-Dade."

In addition, he said, Democrats have filed open record requests in all 67 counties seeking lists of voters who voted with provisional ballots, or who had their absentee ballots rejected.

"The good news in Florida is that many, if not most of the provisional ballots, are actually self curing, which means that the voter won't be required to take any additional action to make their vote count," he said. "The supervisors of elections have the responsibility, and it is an important responsibility, and one we are monitoring, and expect them to take seriously to ensure that those eligible votes are counted."

A Politico reporter tweeted a photo of a box marked, “Provisional ballots,” that was apparently discovered by Miramar Elementary School teacher Lakeisha Sorey in Broward County. Sorey didn't dare look inside, according to the reporter's tweet.

ProPublica's Electionland project, which monitors voting problems around the country, shared a number of anecdotal incidents relating to the Florida election. These included a report that one poll supervisor in a Miami-Dade community directed workers not to speak Spanish in the case of Spanish-speaking voters. Patch was not immediately able to verify this report

If you had trouble voting, or if you saw something you want to tell Electionland about, here’s how.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum gives his concession speech on Tuesday night in Tallahassee. (Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images).