Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
It’s official.
The state Elections Canvassing Commission — made up of Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and CFO Jeff Atwater, all participating by phone — certified the results of the Nov. 8 General Election Thursday. The meeting took less than two minutes.
“It was a record year in Florida,” said Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who presided over the meeting. “We had more people early voting and voting by mail in the history of Florida. I’m very pleased about that.”
Turnout was around 74 percent, which was on par with the 2004 presidential election. It isn’t the highest turnout the state has experienced; that happened during the 1992 general, when the state experienced 83 percent turnout.
Detzner said there were no major issues during the voting process, and called it a “very successful election.”
“We showed the world, we showed Florida, we showed the nation that Florida knows how to conduct elections,” he said. “We’re proud of the voters, proud of their initiative, their passion to vote. But I think the year and the history of 2000 are past us now, and the election of 2016 proved that.”
The certified results include the results of House District 118, which underwent a recount. The race between Republican David Rivera and Democrat Robert Asencio was hotly contested, and was forced to go through both a machine and manual recount.
Election records show Asencio received 31,412 votes, or 50 percent of the vote. Rivera received 31,359 votes, or 49.96 percent of the vote.
“The votes have been counted and the certification has occurred,” said Detzner. “We certified the election, and he had more votes in the election.”
