November 10, 2018

Florida’s Secretary of State Just Ordered an Unprecedented Double Recount

Andrew Gillum withdraws his concession as Trump makes baseless claims of voter fraud.

Andrew Gillum, Florida's Democratic candidate for governor, withdraws his concession at a news conference in Tallahassee on Saturday. Steve Cannon/AP

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Florida’s Republican Secretary of State Ken Detzner is ordering an unprecedented recount of both the state’s Senate and governor’s races. Tallahassee Mayor and Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Gillum responded by withdrawing his concession to Republican Ron DeSantis.

Both races are within the 0.5 percent margin that triggers an automatic machine recount under Florida law. DeSantis is leading Gillum by 33,684 votes, or 0.41 points. Gov. Rick Scott is currently leading Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) by about 12,562 votes, only 0.15 percent of the more than 8 million ballots cast. Florida law requires a hand recount if the Senate race remains within 0.25 percentage points after the initial recount.

President Donald Trump and Scott have baselessly claimed that Democrats are trying to steal the election. Trump wrote six tweets on Friday that questioned the integrity of the Florida elections. Trump tweeted about the Florida race again on Saturday:

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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