Florida’s secretary of state ordered counties to tally ballots by hand after a machine recount that ended Thursday showed Republican Rick Scott leading incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson by just 12,603 votes out of 8.2 million cast, well under the 0.25 percentage point threshold to trigger a hand recount. Republicans will continue to hold a majority of Senate seats after last week’s midterm election, even though a tight race in Arizona ultimately went to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.
