Retabulation nears completion in Allen West, Patrick Murphy race

FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Elections workers at the St. Lucie County tabulation center arrived early on Sunday morning but, left late in the evening on Saturday with the results of a retabulation still in the air.

The recount on Sunday began at about 8:15 a.m.

Both representatives from Patrick Murphy and Allen West will have to wait until noon on Sunday to find out the numbers in the District 18 house race.

After a partial recount of ballots cast during the final three days of early voting in St. Lucie County,  Patrick Murphy led Allen West by 1,907 votes.

At 10:25 p.m. on Saturday, the canvassing board gathered a crowd of onlookers, telling them that if they stayed inside the building any longer, an alarm would sound.

The canvassing board said they did not have enough time to finalize the results, leaving it until Sunday morning.

 The county told the crowd most of the ballots were counted and all boxes and memory cards will be locked up under supervision until Sunday morning.

"We've been pushing for this full recount of early voting. But again there is time to get this finished. We want to make sure it gets done right. Our goal is to make sure people have confidence in fair and accurate counting," said Tim Edson, a spokesperson for Allen West.

The Murphy campaign said there is always a bit of concern when more hands touch the boxes of ballots.

Both the West and Murphy campaigns stressed as long as the recount is done right the first time, it is worth the wait.