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

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

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:

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate