JUDY WOODRUFF: As we reported
earlier, most Florida counties
have finished the machine
vote recount in three
statewide elections today.
In the Senate race, incumbent
Democrat Bill Nelson trails
Republican challenger Rick Scott
by nearly 13,000 votes.
That is still within
the 0.25 percent that
triggers a hand recount.
The "NewsHour"'s digital
politics editor, Dan Bush, has
been in South Florida watching
all this up close.
And he joins me now.
Hello to you, Dan.
So, first of all, as we said
earlier, it was just Palm Beach
County that seemed to have
missed the deadline.
But now we're hearing
it may have been
Broward County as well.
What do we know about that?
DANIEL BUSH: That's right, Judy.
We're just hearing reports now
that Broward County missed the
reporting deadline to finish
the machine recount, which was
3:00 p.m. today, by about two
minutes, which still means that
65 of Florida's 67
counties finished the
machine recount on time.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So let's
talk about the Senate race.
As we just said, it looks like
the separation between Bill
Nelson and Rick Scott is within
that 0.25 percent margin,
which triggers a hand recount.
So what happens now?
DANIEL BUSH: That's right, Judy.
So the recount resulted in a
-- in an outcome that was under
that 0.25 margin that you noted,
a law put in place in the
state after the 2000 election.
That triggers the hand recount.
That's starting tomorrow
morning at 7:00 a.m. sharp.
And an election official told
me in Broward County a little
while ago that it's supposed
to start right on time, more
or less, and the deadline for
that is November 18, so just
a couple of days for them to
go through a universe of tens
of thousands of votes, 42,000
everywhere in Florida, and
then an additional set from
Broward County of undervotes and
overvotes.
Those are votes where -- ballots
where voters either voted
for multiple candidates in a
single race or left it blank.
Those are the votes that
officials are going to be going
through hand by hand in the next
couple days.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, now,
separately from this, Dan,
there has been a lawsuit
filed over provisional
and mail-in ballots.
Tell us where that stands.
DANIEL BUSH: So, Democratic
incumbent Senator Bill Nelson
and the Florida Democratic Party
filed a lawsuit in federal
government challenging a
state law that requires
signatures on provisional
ballots and mail-in
ballots to match the
signatures in state voter
registration records, saying
that it was unconstitutional,
violated equal protection
rights, and makes it harder for
voters to vote.
And a judge just this morning
issued a narrow ruling, allowing
the state to go back and
review about 4,000 of these
ballots to see whether or
not they should be recounted.
But Democrats had hoped for
a broader ruling, potentially
something that would strike down
the existing state law or
even require the state to
automatically look at, you know,
all of these votes.
That didn't happen.
So we will have to see
where it goes from here.
And as soon as the ruling came
out, Republican Governor Rick
Scott, running for the Senate
seat in Florida,
appealed the ruling.
That's now going to the 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals.
We will see where
it goes from there.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, now I
want you to focus for just a
moment on the governor's race,
Republican Ron DeSantis,
Democrat Andrew Gillum.
Recount there as well.
Where does that one stand?
DANIEL BUSH: Yes.
So, on the governor's side,
DeSantis is still leading Gillum
by about 34,000 votes, which
is a 0.41 margin.
So he didn't -- Gillum wasn't
able to close the gap enough
to trigger a hand recount.
We saw DeSantis just a
little while ago saying
that the results were clear.
We're still waiting to hear
from Gillum, but it appears
that that race is where it is,
and that DeSantis will be
certified as the winner,
perhaps as early as next week.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, Dan, we
know you have been spending
time there around the Broward
County election
supervisor's office.
Tell us what's going on there.
There have been
protests outside.
What is the scene there?
DANIEL BUSH: So, inside, you
have a couple of dozen election
workers who in the last
several days have been working
around the clock to do this
machine recount, to feed
the ballots into the machines
and let that process play out.
Meanwhile, outside, there
have been Republican protests,
Democratic protests around this
process.
A lot of Republicans, Judy,
that I spoke to, said -- a lot
of voters -- said they don't
trust these results.
They feel that there
was suspicious activity.
They said that their view
of the election is shaped by
President Donald Trump, who has
focused on Florida, and
disparaged the recount
process, called for it
to be over before all
of the votes were received.
On the other side, you have
Democrats saying that they
don't believe these allegations
of fraud, that they want all
of the votes to be counted,
and that the rules on the books
as they stand now make it
harder for people to vote.
So you have two wildly different
views of this election and
whether or not the results
should be trusted.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well,
political overlay always
when these recounts happen,
and -- but a spotlight
right there as they
count these votes.
Dan Bush, reporting for us
from Florida, thank you.
DANIEL BUSH: Thank you.