PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. -- Recounts began across the state on Sunday, after the Secretary of State ordered Florida's 67 counties to re-tabulate more than 8 million ballots.
- Pinellas County begins recounting ballots
- Workers are processing ballots through machines
- Statewide recount underway in gubernatorial, Senate races
Around 9 a.m. Sunday morning, officials at the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Office began pulling roughly 440,000 ballots from a locked room on the property and loading them into carts.
The ballots were wheeled into a room that houses five high-speed scanners where dozens of employees began the process of feeding them into the machine.
"In a recount, it is not unusual to see the vote counts change, but in minor ways," said Deborah Clark, Supervisor of Elections in Pinellas County.
The team in Pinellas County began with mail ballots, then they are moving to ballots that were cast on Election Day, followed by early voting and provisional ballots. Results from each county are due by Thursday at 3 p.m.
"Our approach to every election is that it's just an unfiled lawsuit," Clark said.
The process is open to the public. In a viewing room watching it all happen were teams of lawyers and representatives from each political party.
There's no final price tag on what the recount will cost, but Clark said some of her employees are clocking nearly 120 hour per week.
After the machine recount, races within .25 percent will go to a manual recount. If that happens, Supervisor Clark says employees will be paired together and then each political party or candidate can designate a representative to witness each team complete the process of counting ballots.