How should a county decide whether to grant a request for a manual recount?
[updated November 22] As an initial matter, the local canvassing board of a county may authorize a limited manual recount of at least three precincts and at least one percent of the total votes cast for that candidate. If that limited recount “indicates an error in vote tabulation which could affect the outcome of the election,” then a manual recount should be undertaken of all of the county’s ballots. In its November 21 opinion, the Florida Supreme Court rejected the construction of “error in vote tabulation” previously enunciated by the Florida Secretary of State and interpreted the phrase to include “errors in the failure of the voting machinery to read a ballot and not simply errors resulting from the voting machinery.” If a county decides to conduct a manual recount, the recount is open to the public. The county must appoint “counting teams” of at least two voters each with, when possible, members of at least two political parties. If a counting team can’t determine a voter’s inte
