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By all accounts, the Governor’s Race is too close to call. But the state says it is prepared if the race really is to close to call.

Poll after Poll calls the race between Charlie Crist and Rick Scott a dead heat, or too close to call. Flash back to 2000, when 537 votes in Florida decided who would be President.

Since 2000, the standards for a recount have gotten smaller. The state will only re-tabulate machine results if the margin between two candidates is less than a half of a percent. And actual ballots won’t be counted unless the margin is less than a quarter percent…Still, Secretary of State Ken Detzner says he is ready if the margin is that close. “We have the knowledge, The law is good, and I’m very confident we can do a good job with it…it will be challenging, don’t get me wrong, but we’re prepared.”

With a fifty percent turnout, the race would have to be within thirty thousand votes to trigger a recount and within fifteen thousand votes to actually go back and look at the ballots.

FSU Political Scientist Lance DeHaven Smith says the margins for a recount are so low that voters are disenfranchised. He cites this state report, which found one of every 135 votes wasn’t counted in 2012. That’s 63 thousand votes that weren’t counted because a  race was left  blank, or too many boxes were checked.  “That’s just people who were putting a stray mark on it and sometimes it misreads it, or  they select two candidates and x one out because they changed their mind, and it won’t read it” says DeHaven Smith.

And because overseas ballots are allowed another ten days to be returned, it could take that long to call a really close race.”

The recount law was changed after the 2000 election. There are at least two congressional races and a handful of legislative races, as well as the Governor’s race, which are considered toss ups.