Palm Beach County: No Way We Can Do This

Florida's 'unprecedented' recount is underway
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 11, 2018 5:08 PM CST
Palm Beach County: No Way We Can Do This
Workers load ballots into machines at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office during a recount on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018, in Lauderhill, Fla.   (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

After some early bumps, more than half of Florida's 67 counties began recounting votes Sunday in the razor-thin Senate and gubernatorial races, bringing back memories of the 2000 presidential fiasco, the AP reports. In Democratic-leaning Broward County, the scheduled start of the recount was delayed Sunday because of a problem with one of the tabulation machines. The Republican Party attacked Broward's supervisor of elections, Brenda Snipes, of "incompetence and gross mismanagement" following the delay, which was resolved within two hours. The county, the state's second-most populous, is emerging as the epicenter of controversy in the recount. Broward officials say they mistakenly counted 22 absentee ballots that had been rejected, mostly because the signature on the return envelope did not match the one on file.

It is a problem that appears impossible to fix because the ballots were mixed in with 205 legal ballots. Snipes said it would be unfair to throw out all the ballots. Palm Beach County, another Democratic stronghold, could also present challenges. The county's supervisor of elections says she doesn't believe her department will be able to meet the state's Thursday recount deadline: "It's impossible," Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher tells CNN. The recount in most other major population centers, including Miami-Dade and Pinellas and Hillsborough counties in the Tampa Bay area, was ongoing without incident on Sunday. Smaller counties are expected to begin their reviews Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. (See why Florida's recount decision was "unprecedented.")

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