The St. Lucie County canvassing board missed a noon deadline to report recount results to the state Sunday, a Department of State official said Monday, but the outcome remains the same in Patrick Murphy 's District 18 apparent win over Allen West .
Florida Department of State spokesman Chris Cate said that since the board missed its deadline, the unofficial results submitted last Sunday would be used when the state certifies its results Tuesday. Those results showed Murphy beating West by 0.58 percent. State law calls for an automatic recount in races separated by 0.5 percent or less.
After a recount spanning a day and a half, the board couldn't finish up in time to get updated results to the state by noon Sunday. Ultimately, board member and County Commissioner Tod Mowery said Murphy gained ground with the retabulation. The new tally added in 306 more votes, which weren't included in District 18's unofficial results.
The final St. Lucie count was 65,841 votes for Murphy and 52,704 for West. Murphy picked up 274 votes, according to Mowery, while West gained 32 votes. The margin grew to 0.65 percent in Murphy's favor.
The board technically retabulated, not recounted, results Saturday and Sunday. Canvassing boards can retabulate a certain group of results if they think they contain counting errors.
Cate pointed out the changed results wouldn't have triggered recounts in St. Lucie races, anyway.
"The results were not reported by the statutory noon deadline. By statute, any returns submitted to the department after the noon Sunday deadline cannot be accepted," Cate said. "It is worth noting, however, that the results of St. Lucie’s final retabulation would not affect the ultimate outcome of any race and would not place any race within the margin of a recount."
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