Two candidates running in state House District 15 — Jay Fant and Paul Renner –finished only three votes apart after the ballot counting was done Tuesday night.
Under Florida law, if two candidates are separated by less than a half of a percent, there must be a machine recount — if less than a quarter of a percent, all provisional ballots must be examined by hand.
The recount can’t legally start before 5 p.m. Thursday and is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Friday.
Here are two quick thoughts about this recount…
First, how terrible is it that the one state House seat which ends with razor-close finish and prompts a bite-your-nails recount falls in the media market of a newspaper — the Florida Times-Union — that doesn’t even have a full-time capital reporter?
Were there to be a recount in Pinellas’ House District 68, for example, you can bet your bottom dollar this blogger, as well as reporters from the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Tribune, and a handful of radio and TV stations, would be camped outside the Supervisor of Elections.
The FTU, meanwhile, has not updated its story about this race in nineteen hours. What a waste of a good recount!
Second, Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland told News4Jax that the recount should take between two and three hours and will cost taxpayers up to $100,000.
How is that it costs $60,000 for a full day of the Legislature meeting in Special Session, while the price of a recount costs $40K more. Something seems off there.
But, hey, this is a vote recount in Florida … of course something feels off.
Material from News4Jax was used in this post.
