The recount across Florida continues in the governor and senate races. Manatee County had to start their recount from scratch.
A computer error meant tens of thousands of ballots had to be recounted.
This week, teams have been hard at work conducting a machine recount in Manatee County. But on Monday, Supervisor of Elections Michael Bennett says something caught his eye.
“When we looked at the numbers coming out we thought, ‘you know what? Something isn’t right, something’s wrong,’” said Bennett.
The machines were not properly identifying the amount of undervotes and overvotes.
“It was a programming error,” said Bennett.
An overvote is when a voter chooses multiple candidates in the same race and an undervote is when they choose no one. Those ballots are set aside to be counted manually later if needed.
So, after counting 43,000 ballots, this office had to start again.
“So we back checked the programming, pushed another button that I should’ve pushed the first time, and we’re back in business,” said Bennett.
Observers from both parties have been watching the entire time.
The counting has resumed and roughly a dozen people are working 12 hours a day to make sure this recount is accurate. Despite the hiccup, Bennett says he plans to beat the Thursday deadline with plenty of time.
“It’s really gone quite well to be honest with you,” said Bennett.
Bennett plans to complete the machine recount by Wednesday. And he’s already prepared his team for an expected manual recount to be declared later this week.
