Florida Senate race likely headed to 2nd recount

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Unofficial Florida election results show the governor's race seems to be settled after a machine recount, but the U.S. Senate race is likely headed to a hand recount.

Unofficial results posted on the Florida secretary of state's website show that Republican Ron DeSantis is virtually assured of winning the nationally watched governor's race over Democrat Andrew Gillum. Florida finished a machine recount today that showed Gillum without enough votes to force a manual recount.

The margin between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott is still thin enough to trigger a second review. State law requires a hand recount of races with margins of 0.25 percentage points or less.

Counties have until Sunday to inspect the ballots that did not record a vote when put through the machines. Those ballots are re-examined to see whether the voter skipped the race or marked the ballot in a way that the machines cannot read but can be deciphered.

The election will be certified Tuesday.

The Associated Press will not declare winners in the races for Florida governor and Senate until state officials certify the results next week.