[Fredricka Whitfield, Cnn Anchor:] CNN's Ryan Nobles is live in Tallahassee. What do you know, Ryan?
[Ryan Nobles, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Fred, it sure looks like we're headed to a recount in Florida in these big races between the governor, the Senate, and the agriculture commission, all statewide races in Florida. It's important to point out, even though Broward County said they're ready to move ahead with that automatic recount, we're still waiting on the secretary of state here to put out the official word that, based on these final vote tallies, that that's where we're headed. Based on all the votes we see, which is posted on the secretary of state's Web site, all of the counties have now reported all the votes that must be in by the noon deadline on this day. There's a batch of votes, military and overseas ballots, that have a 10-day deadline, which haven't been counted yet. But this important group of votes, the vast majority of the votes here in Florida have now been registered and are in the secretary of state's office. According to those final readouts, it looks as though Ron DeSantis, the Republican nominee for governor, has a lead of about.41 percent over Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee. That would be enough to trigger the automatic recount. In the race for U.S. Senate, that's even tighter. The current Governor Rick Scott has a lead over Bill Nelson, the incumbent Senator, of only.14 percent. That, too, would be enough to trigger that automatic machine recount. If that does happen, and we're expecting it any minute from the secretary of state, we have a process of up until next Thursday when that machine recount has to take place. They'll then look at the numbers another time, and if the margins show a gap of less than a quarter of a percent, they'll begin a hand recount of just the undervotes and overvotes. So this is just the beginning of what will likely be a very lengthy process, Fred. But as we await word from the secretary of state of Florida, it seems we are very likely headed to what could be an historic recount here in the Sunshine State Fred?
[Whitfield:] Ryan Nobles, thank you. We'll check back with you a bit later, from Tallahassee Meantime, in Broward County, CNN's Jessica Dean is there, where the Canvassing Board has been meeting and made a decision to have a recount at least in that county. But then what next? The secretary of state has to weigh in before it happened?
[Jessica Dean, Cnn Correspondent:] That's right, Fredricka. We're kind of in a holding pattern now. We have come outside. We were inside when the Canvassing Board was getting prepared to present their unofficial results to the secretary of state's office. They went all through the morning continuing to look at various votes and deciding if they were valid or invalid, going through that process. This has attracted a lot of attention from people on both sides, supporters on both sides. We've seen protesters here throughout the morning and afternoon. They've moved them now to my right. You're hearing vocal protesters on both sides. People who are saying let every vote count. Other people who are very critical of Brenda Snipes, who is the election supervisor here. They keep chanting "lock her up." As we've been telling you, there's a high-energy, high- emotion here. A lot of eyes on Broward County, which historically has found itself in the spotlight for this type of thing. If you want to go back to the year 2000, it was right there in the middle of all that. There was a press conference earlier. We want to let you listen to some of what was said.
[Eugene Pettis, Attorney To Board Of Supervisor Of Elections:] We're here. There have been allegations of fraud. Those are serious charges to recklessly off route there. There's no basis for it. To give a claim of fraud without any evidence I think is unacceptable. Should be unacceptable in our electoral process. The votes have all been counted. The votes have been transmitted to the state. As you may know, that was a deadline of noon today. They had that through the Canvassing Board. The preliminary certifications went up there in advance of 12 noon. That is what the law requires. That has been complied with. We've have complied with the judge's order.
[Dean:] So there's the official statement right now from the supervisor's office here. Fredricka, we're going to keep an eye on this and we'll privilege you more information as we get it.
[Whitfield:] All right, thank you so much, Jessica. I appreciate it. Let's talk more about this and what's at stake overall. Toluse Olorunnipa is with us, White House reporter for "Bloomberg News," and Patrick Healy, a political editor for the "New York Times." Good to see you both. You hear the word recount and people start thinking about 2000 presidential race all over again, Florida, Florida, Florida. So, Toluse, there's a lot at stake. We're talking about two very important and vital races, for the governor as well as the U.S. Senate with the incumbent, Bill Nelson. So now we've got a one county's Canvassing Board that gives a green light to a recount. But the secretary of state still has to weigh in here. People are on pins and needles, not just in Florida, but all the way to the White House. Why is the White House so incredibly invested in these races?
[Toluse Olorunnipa, White House Reporter, Bloomberg News:] Yes, these are two races that are seen as referendums on President Trump. He went down to Florida several times. He endorsed the gubernatorial candidate early in the race, got him through that primary, and campaigned for him multiple times. Also, Governor Scott, President Trump spent a lot of time trying to boost his campaign, tweeting out his endorsement. This is a place where the president spends a lot of time, Mar-a-Lago. Looking forward to 2020, the president wants to make sure he has not only a Senator that's in place from the Republican Party in Florida, but also a governor who will be in charge of helping him try to secure Florida's 209 electoral votes. That's part of the reason why the president has gotten so involved. He started to spout various conspiracy theories about fraud and problems in Broward County without putting forward any evidence. But it's clear the president and the White House are very interested in what will happen in Florida and how those races will ultimately be called. Those two states, if they end up being called for Republicans, will be just a couple of bright spots in what was a pretty bad night for the president on election night, where we're seeing a growing number of Democrats that were able to flip seats. We're seeing a growing number of governors' races that actually flipped to Democrats. So the president is trying to hang on to Florida as one of the few bright spots on Tuesday night if the recounts end up with the Republicans remaining in the lead.
[Whitfield:] Patrick, when you talk about the recount and, you know, the gaps, in the U.S. Senate race and the governor's race, in one case, it's 14,000 votes that separates the two. In another, it's in the realm of 30,000, even with a recount. What messages are being sent by don't appear to be huge gaps when they break it down to people, 14,000 versus 30,000-something. What are the likelihoods that the recount will narrow the differences here and lead to whether it be recounts or perhaps even runoffs?
[Patrick Healy, Political Editor, New York Times:] Right, Fred. It's two issues going on here. One is the practical politics. One is the principle. Let's deal with the principle first. The principle is every vote should count. Every vote should be counted. Every vote matters. There should be a nonpartisan process in this country where votes are tabulated. And if there are questions about votes, you know, counties and states are set up to handle that, you know, in due order. It's not as if the election happens on a Tuesday night and, suddenly, you have to have a winner by 5:00 a.m. Wednesday. You know, problems occur and we're supposed to let a process play out. What we're seeing is principle coming up against the fact in Florida and in Georgia, you do have Republicans in charge of a process that they are also deeply invested in the outcome of. In the case of Georgia, former secretary of state, overseeing his own election. There's the principle issue. The practical politics, Fred, and what you're getting at is, in Florida at least, the margin in the governor's race, between Ron DeSantis and Andrew Gillum, you know, is pretty is relatively large in recount territory. You may see a recount. But there's a reason why Andrew Gillum conceded to Ron DeSantis in the governor's race. It looked like the votes were going DeSantis' way. It's really unclear if a recount will change that. Now, in the Senate race, that vote is very narrow. We've seen cases before where a recount, where a look, you know, in a margin as close as Rick Scott and Bill Nelson, you know, can narrow. And if there are votes in Broward County and Palm Beach County, two Democratic counties, you know, that haven't been fully incorporated into the count, that could end up going Nelson's way. The key thing here is counting the votes and letting that vote count unfold. At least right now, it's a little bit more, you know, on the Senate side where they're
[Whitfield:] Yes. And, Toluse, you had Gillum tweeting out, "Every vote counts." Just repeating exactly what Patrick Healy was saying. Then you have a counter message coming from the president in his tweet, while he's saying, "Thank you, you know, Marco Rubio, for helping to express the potential corruption going on with respect to election theft in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, the world is now watching closely." Again, no evidence that there's corruption or even fraudulent practices, even though you even had Rick Scott who used those words at a press conference last night. So what is the message being sent, you know, if all of the tallies or the votes are still being counted up until noon time today's deadline, how undermining is it, the message that every vote should count and be counted?
[Olorunnipa:] Like Patrick said, that's a normal principle of our democracy, everybody gets a chance to vote and everyone who voted should have their vote counted. They voted according to the laws. It's not something that happens at a snap of a finger. It takes a while. There are mail-in ballots coming in from overseas. We're hearing messages from top political leaders about how there's fraud and how there's an attempt to steal an election. It's incredibly damaging to the faith Americans have in their democracy for these accusations to be made without any hard evidence.
[Whitfield:] Right, no evidence.
[Olorunnipa:] Yes. It seems like, when you look at Florida, a number of these leaders are saying we should certify the election as soon as possible and don't worry about all these extra votes. But when you look at Arizona, where the Democrat has taken the lead in the Senate race, it seems like a number of these Republican leaders want more time for more votes to be counted and there should be more of process there and every vote should count in that race. So we're seeing a little bit of a conflicting message there. And I think it will be positive if everyone would take a step back, allow the process to play out. If there's any evidence of fraud, I'm sure law enforcement agencies that are involved will take a look at it. But I don't think we've seen any evidence of that, and definitely not enough evidence for there to be these conspiracy theories thrown about by the people in the highest levels of our politics.
[Whitfield:] Yes, thus far, none revealed. All right, Toluse, Patrick, good to see you both. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Still to come, wildfires raging in both northern and southern California. One woman recorded her harrowing trip you see it right there trying to get out of the fire zone. A live report straight ahead.