The Florida Governor's Race Has Tightened to Within the Margin to Trigger An Automatic Recount, and Andrew Gillum Just Weighed In

The midterms aren't over yet. The closely fought race for Florida governor looks headed for a recount as the difference in votes between the two candidates has fallen to less than half a percent.

As of Thursday afternoon, former Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis is up just 0.4 percentage points - that's 36,234 votes out of more than 8 million votes cast - over Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.

On Wednesday evening, with tens of thousands of ballots still uncounted, Gillum said he was "looking forward to seeing every vote counted.”

DeSantis had been declared the winner of the race Tuesday night. Gillum, who is looking to be the first black governor of the Sunshine State, conceded the election to DeSantis after the race was called.

Under Florida law, however, any margin of less than 0.5 percent triggers an automatic recount. The Gillum campaign on Thursday reportedly told April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks that DeSantis's lead had dropped to less than 15,000 votes.

Gillum urged Florida voters Thursday afternoon to make sure their provisional ballots were properly cast and submitted.

"Every voice must be heard in this race!" Gillum wrote on Twitter. "If you voted a provisional ballot, make sure your vote gets counted by contacting your County Supervisor of Elections by 5 PM TODAY."

People did just that.

The following tweets can help if you live in Florida and need to secure your vote.

There is still hope down there in Florida.

Florida's Senate race was also close enough to cross into recount territory.

As of Thursday afternoon, incumbent Senator Bill Nelson (D) trailed outgoing governor Rick Scott (R) by only 0.21 percent, or a little more than 17,000 votes.

This year's nailbiter in Florida is reminding people of the 2000 presidential election.

Just 537 votes in Florida made enough of a difference for George W. Bush to claim the presidency.

Broward and Palm Beach Counties, which are heavily Democratic, became infamous for their bizarre ballots, shady vote counting practices, and slow return processing times.

"Results from Broward so far indicate that nearly 25,000 people cast votes for governor but not for senator, even though the Senate race came first on the ballot."

“I think we had over 58 percent of our voters voted, and each voter received a ballot package of either five or six pages,” said Dr. Brenda Snipes, Broward County elections supervisor. “It’s volume that causes this.”

Once the initial vote totals are submitted on Saturday, a machine recount must be completed by 3 P.M. on 11/15. If the margin is within 0.25 percent, a manual recount will take place. "In those races of what are known as undervotes and overvotes; the recounts would have to be completed by Nov. 18," the Times said.

The paper explains the difference: "Undervotes are ballots on which optical-scanning machines detected a vote for another race down the ballot, like governor or attorney general, but no selection for Senate. Overvotes are ballots on which scanners detected that the voter had marked more than one choice in the race."

It's no wonder people are having flashbacks of 2000.