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Hundreds Of Overcounts, Thousands Of Undercounts In Alachua and Marion Counties

Volunteers on Friday, Nov. 9 double-check duplicate ballots, which become necessary when one doesn’t bubble correctly, or because of spilled drink or white out on the ballot. (Christina Morales/WUFT News)
Volunteers on Friday, Nov. 9 double-check duplicate ballots, which become necessary when one doesn’t bubble correctly, or because of spilled drink or white out on the ballot. (Christina Morales/WUFT News)

Voting machine recount numbers in Marion County and Alachua County show dozens of overvotes and thousands of undervotes.

The machine recounts were ordered over the weekend in the Florida races for governor, senate and agriculture commissioner when the initial vote totals for those races came in with half a percentage point of the top two candidates.

An overvote is where it appears more than one candidate in a race was marked on the ballot. An undervote is where no candidate was marked.

In Alachua County, Elections Supervisor Kim Barton says in the U.S. Senate race between Gov. Rick Scott and incumbent Bill Nelson there were 19 overvotes and 779 undervotes. The governor’s race between Ron DeSantis and Andrew Gillum and four minor candidates had 108 overvotes and 738 undervotes. The agriculture commissioner contest between Matt Caldwell and Nikki Fried had nine overvotes and 3,754 undervotes.

In Marion County, the numbers from Elections Supervisor Wesley Wilcox found that in the Senate race between Scott and Nelson there were 36 overvotes and 1,231 undervotes. The gubernatorial race between DeSantis and Gillum and the four minor candidates had 422 overvotes and 885 undervotes. And in the agriculture commissioner race between Caldwell and Fried there were 8 overvotes and 4,198 undervotes.

These numbers, and the rest of the machine recounts from Florida’s 67 counties, have to be turned in to Secretary of State Ken Detzner by 3 p.m. on Thursday. After looking at the numbers in the three races in question, any that are then within .25 percent of the top two vote getters will have a manual recount involving the overvote ballots.

Forrest is a radio news manager for WUFT News. Reach him by emailing news@wuft.org or calling 352-392-6397.