Rick Scott Maintains Vote Lead Over Bill Nelson In Contested FL Senate Race

Republican Rick Scott leads Democratic Sen Bill Nelson in Florida recount

According to the official results released by Florida's Division of Elections, Republican Governor Rick Scott has maintained his lead over Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in the contested Florida Senate race following the conclusion of a manual recount of ballots on Sunday. 

Scott maintained a vote lead of 10,033 over the incumbent Nelson. The Democratic senator was trailing Scott on Election night by 12,603 votes. 

The manual recount ended at noon on Sunday after all 67 of Florida's counties submitted their final vote totals to Florida's secretary of state. The manual recount was ordered last week because the margin between Nelson and Scott was less than .25%. Florida state law mandates a hand count of ballots that a machine could not make a clear reading on - either because it was left blank, or because other markings made the ballot unclear. 

The Democratic candidate for Governor, Andrew Gillum, ended his campaign's efforts Saturday night, conceding to his opponent after concluding that his own recount would not be sufficient to catch up to Republican Ron DeSantis. During his concession speech, Gillum referred to the need for election reform in Florida. 

"We're going to everything that we can to make sure that over the coming weeks and over the coming months that we do what we can to perfect our electoral system," Gillum said. "We need to update Florida's elections system and bring it into the 21st century."

Photo: Getty Images


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