Florida is having another ballot crisis

 Voters fill out their ballots.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

We regret to inform you that Broward County is at it again.

Eighteen years after its hanging chads mired an entire presidential election, the Florida county's ballots are again pulling a nationally watched race into question. Around 24,000 people who voted in Florida's gubernatorial race didn't pick a candidate for Senate, and some think a poorly designed ballot may be to blame, South Florida's Sun Sentinel reported Thursday.

Both the gubernatorial race between former Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D), and the Senate race between Gov. Rick Scott (R) and incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D), were incredibly close on Tuesday night. Gillum has conceded to DeSantis, but the Senate race is probably headed for a recount despite Scott's claim of victory.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

As of Wednesday night, votes were still being counted in the "Democratic stronghold" of Broward County, and the county election supervisor doesn't know how many are left, the Sentinel writes. Unofficial results are expected by Friday, but officials are already noticing something strange — about 680,000 voters picked a governor's candidate, but only 656,000 chose someone for Senate. Several voters told the Sentinel they didn't see the Senate race on the ballot.

See more

About half of the shifty ballots marked Gillum for governor, and the other half voted for DeSantis, so there's a chance their votes would've evenly split between the Senate candidates as well. Still, the fact that a woman who broke federal and state election laws in 2016 is still in charge of Broward County's elections is raising some questions on its own. Read more at the Sun Sentinel.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.