Ready, set, recount: Voting machines primed to begin recount in Manatee County

A crowd of observers watched keenly as vote machines were readied for an impending recount Sunday afternoon at the Supervisor of Elections Office in Manatee County.

The day was devoted to “logic and accuracy tests,” a process that ensures ballot machines are correctly counting votes. A “test deck” containing every possible ballot combination was run through two high speed ballot scanners to ensure accuracy. Eight backup manual-feed voting machines, like the ones used at precincts on election day, were also tested.

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner officially ordered a statewide recount for the Florida races for U.S. Senate, governor and agriculture commissioner on Saturday.

In Manatee, the recounts start at 8 a.m. Monday, said Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett.

Bennett says this is the first time they will recount three races at one time.

There were a total of 163,484 votes cast in Manatee County, a 66.7 percent turnout.

“I gotta tell you, Manatee County votes,” Bennett said.

For more than three hours on Sunday, a group including lawyers, advocates for political parties and politicians and concerned citizens observed as Supervisor of Elections employees ran voting machines through accuracy tests.

In Manatee County, the recount process will require twelve-hour days entering ballots into vote machines, but Bennett expects it to run smoothly. Bennett estimates that his office will complete the recount by Wednesday, a day before the deadline of 3 p.m. Thursday.

Official results will be certified by the state by Nov. 20.

The recount process is carried out by Supervisor of Election Office staff. Bennett told the crowd gathered in his office on Sunday that he runs every single ballot personally.

A three-person canvassing board, made up of Bennett, County Judge Mark Singer and county Commissioner Priscilla Trace, must witness the whole recount process. All three canvass board members also have alternates who can fill in.

The canvass board members are on hand to make decisions when the vote machines cannot determine a voter’s intent. Sometimes there is a stray mark. Other times, voters have circled one candidate’s name and crossed out another.

According to Singer, those determinations have already been made, so the recount process will be left primarily to the machines.

“I’ve been doing this for six years now and we’ve never had a problem, Singer said. “If there are any errors they tend to be human.”

The canvassing board also weighs in on “overvotes” and “undervotes.”

An overvote occurs when a vote machine determines that a voter has selected more than the maximum number of choices allowed, and an undervote occurs when a voter has selected less than the maximum number.

During the recount, the voting machines separate overvote and undervote ballots into a separate pile that are then reviewed by the canvass board to see if the voter’s intent can be determined.

This story was originally published November 11, 2018 at 8:01 PM.