Florida election recount underway, tensions rise

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Elections workers are beginning to recount ballots in Florida’s U.S. Senate and governor races under a state-ordered review of the two nationally watched races.

Miami-Dade County election officials began feeding ballots into scanning machines Saturday evening, among the first in Florida’s 67 counties tasked with a Nov. 15 deadline to submit vote counts to the state.

The Florida secretary of state ordered the recounts Saturday.

Unofficial results show that Republican former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis led Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by less than 0.5 percentage points. In the Senate race, Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson is less than 0.25 percentage points.