Kevin Spacey & Denis Leary from the HBO movie "Recount".
With the election being incredibly tight between Governor Rick Scott (R. FL) and Charlie Crist (D. FL), it's very possible that this race could go into a recount. So both candidates are getting ready for what could be a long battle:
http://www.tampabay.com/...
"I think it's going to be a little bit closer than it was four years ago," predicted Miami lawyer Juan-Carlos Planas, a former state legislator who has been involved in several recount cases. "Everybody on our side is here to be sure the law is followed."
A recount must be ordered by Secretary of State Ken Detzner, a Scott appointee.
The first step, a machine recount, is a retabulation of ballots using automated machines, essentially double-checking the totals. But if that closes the gap between the candidates to a quarter of a percentage point or less, a manual recount would take place of all undervotes and overvotes, if the number of votes in dispute is large enough to alter the result.
"The pool of disputed ballots has to be greater than the difference," said lawyer Mark Herron, who advises Democrats.
An undervote occurs when a voter casts no vote in a race, and an overvote occurs when a voter chooses more than one candidate. The number of those ballots has declined since Florida abandoned punch-card ballots and their hanging chads after the 2000 debacle and switched first to touch-screen machines and later to optical scan paper ballots.
The latter change was ordered by Crist, then a Republican, soon after he took office in 2007.
The outcome also could be affected by tens of thousands of disputed votes cast by mail, overseas or provisionally and counted separately in Florida's 67 counties. Every county has a three-member canvassing board with the discretion to count or reject votes that have questionable signatures on absentee ballot envelopes.
If it's too close to call, the focus is likely to be on the three largest counties: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. All have track records of sluggish returns and problems at the polls.
"In the big counties, it's most likely to be contentious and it's where strange things are most likely to happen," said Republican strategist J.M. "Mac" Stipanovich.
A candidate can contest an election on four grounds: ineligibility of the winning candidate to hold office; evidence of illegal votes or legal votes that weren't counted; proof that an election official was bribed; or misconduct, fraud or corruption by a canvassing board member.
That means the fight for control of the nation's biggest battleground state could easily shift to the courts, where the leading candidate would demand a quick resolution and the trailing candidate would try to expand the universe of votes. - Tampa Bay Times, 10/28/14
Both campaigns have poll watchers to monitor early voting sites and on Election Day throughout the state. Florida Democrats have thousands of volunteers serving on "voter protection teams," and they are robo-calling voters and reminding them to call a voter protection hot line if necessary. Here's the number to call:
(844) 358-6837
The final results must be certified by 9 a.m. November 18. I feel confident that Crist can beat Scott but we have to be ready for anything. Click here to donate and get involved with Crist's campaign:
http://www.charliecrist.com/