Counting Machines Malfunction In Florida As Vote Recount Begins.

Florida’s statewide recount has begun after a three-hour delay amid a series of technical glitches with Broward County’s counting machines, elections officials said.

One machine failed to register all ballots during a testing period, causing the delay, the South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper reported.

Two counting machines that were expected to be delivered to Orlando for the recount were diverted to Broward County to assist with process there.

On Saturday, Florida’s secretary of state officially ordered machine recounts in three statewide elections — U.S. senator, governor and agriculture commissioner. Results in each race were within a half-percentage point, the threshold for triggering a machine recount.

County election officials were expected to report the results of the machine recount by 3 p.m. Thursday. If the results are within 0.25 percent, the state will order a hand recount to be completed by noon Nov. 18.

The Senate race is within 0.15 percent — with Republican Gov. Rick Scott leading incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson by less than 13,000 votes out of more than 8 million votes cast — 4,098,107 to 4,085,545 — in Tuesday’s election.

In the race for governor, the margin is less than 34,000 votes or 0.41 percent. Republican Ron DeSantis, who resigned as a member of the U.S. House to run for governor, has 4,075,879 votes to Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum’s 4,4042,195.