Recounts remain a real possibility in a trio of too close-to-call midterm races — including bitter battles over the governor’s mansions in both Georgia and Florida.
Republican Brian Kemp resigned Thursday as Georgia’s secretary of state, the office that oversees voting, just a day after his campaign said he had captured enough votes to become governor. His Democratic rival, Stacey Abrams, refused to concede and her campaign demanded that state officials “count every single vote.”
In Florida, Democrat Andrew Gillum is preparing for a possible recount in the Florida governor’s race he already conceded to Republican Ron DeSantis on Tuesday night. Gillum’s campaign said it’s monitoring the situation with an elections lawyer and preparing for a possible state-mandated recount.
At the same time, the U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson and Republican Gov. Rick Scott remained too close to call. Nelson’s elections lawyer predicted it would be a “jump ball” as it became more likely there would be a recount in that race.
Kemp, who refused to step down as the Peach State’s top election official throughout the campaign, oversaw his own race and drew significant criticism from election watchdog groups.
His resignation Thursday morning came as a hearing began for a lawsuit in which five voters asked that he be barred from exercising his duties in any future management of his own election tally.
Abrams’ campaign repeatedly accused Kemp of improperly using his post as secretary of state to bully and intimidate voters, especially African-Americans.
Kemp made clear that he wasn’t stepping down in response to please his critics, only to start on his transition to the governor’s office.
Only 62,000 votes separate Kemp from his opponent. Abrams’ campaign maintained Thursday that enough uncounted ballots remain to make a difference.
“This is all public information, ladies and gentlemen, public information,” said campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo. “We demand that Secretary of State Kemp, his campaign … they need to release all the data, all the numbers, and they need to count every single vote.”
Officials in Florida, meanwhile, were scrambling to finish unofficial tallies by a Saturday deadline.
Gillum, the outgoing mayor of Tallahassee, trailed DeSantis by roughly 38,000 votes out of 8.2 million cast, giving him 49.15% of the vote to DeSantis’ 49.62%, according to the Associated Press.
Florida law requires an automatic machine recount in any race where the margin of victory is within one-half of 1 percentage point.
Late Thursday morning, Gillum campaign spokeswoman Johanna Cervone said the campaign was prepared for a recount effort.
“It has become clear there are many more uncounted ballots than was originally reported,” she said in a statement. “Our campaign, along with our attorney Barry Richard, is monitoring the situation closely and is ready for any outcome, including a state-mandated recount.”
Just 21,888 votes out of 8.2 million separate Nelson and Scott in the Florida Senate race as elections officials in Broward County were still counting votes Thursday. Democrats have a large advantage in the district, which includes Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach.
Marc Elias, a lawyer hired by Nelson, said he expects the margin to narrow.
“The results of the 2018 Senate election are unknown and I think that you and the elections officials should treat it as such,” Elias said. “We believe that at the end of this process that Senator Nelson is going to be declared the winner and is going to return to the United States Senate.”
With News Wire Services
