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Judge Mark Walker in a ruling Thursday upheld the state’s deadline for reporting the results of the machine recount and hand recount.

The deadline to end the machine recount in the state has officially passed and Palm Beach county didn’t finish in time, but Walker’s ruling also noted no state law prevents Palm Beach County from continuing counting.

Even though Palm Beach county can continue its machine recount through Sunday it’s not clear if the state will accept the new total in the final certified results.

Despite the barrage of news coming from the courts a panel of political insiders met in the state’s capital city Thursday, to take a look back and make sense of what’s happened so far and what it all means moving forward.

The panel made up of Gubernatorial Candidate Andrew Gillum’s campaign adviser Kevin Cate, republican strategist David Johnson and democratic strategist Steve Schale say the overtime election was likely from the get-go.

“We are just a deeply deeply divided state and that’s not going to change any time soon and so elections in the state, just as this one was, just as Trump was, just as when Obama won are divided very much at the margins,” said Schale.

Republican David Johnson says he believes the problems with the state’s election process highlighted by the close race can be fixed.

“I think we’ll have a great opportunity in this Legislative session to address some of those flaws,” said Johnson. “I hope that we do that in a way that next time, because we’re Florida there will be a next time, that we’re a little bit more prepared even so then how we were.”

In the meantime many alleged flaws are being addressed by the courts.

Schale says most rulings will likely have little impact on out come, but others could have major consequences.

“I don’t think the Palm Beach thing is going to make a difference overall,” said Schale. “I think the big questions are what happens to these vote by mail ballots, what happens in Broward with the undervotes? Those are the big unknowns in this election between now and the end of it.”

When asked to describe the 2018 in one word the three panelists used painful, ‘shabacle’ and most importantly, ongoing.

The Federal Judge who will decide which ballots are counted and which are not is getting high marks from those who know him, despite ruling against the state in multiple elections cases.

Federal Judge Mark Walker was recommended by both US Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio, appointed by President Obama, and confirmed on a 94 – nothing vote.

He’s made headlines with pointed opinions, ordering the state to give voters a chance to cure spoiled mail ballots, ordered polling places on college campuses, extended voter registration following a hurricane and declared the clemency process unconstitutional.

“He established the facts about how bad that system was,” said former FSU President Sandy D’Alemberte.

Walker got undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Florida.

For 8 years he was Steve Andrew’s law partner.

“His father worked at Winn Dixie. I think he retired from Winn Dixie. He’s just a great guy,” said Andrews.

Former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Stephen Grimes calls Walker the best clerk her ever had.

“Whatever the law requires, he’s going to rule that way,” said Grimes.

When Mark Walker ran to be a state court judge, no one opposed him.

Pete Dunbar is supervising a dozen lawyers for the Republican Party.

He says even if he doesn’t like Walker’s rulings, it’s not the end of the road.

“There is a process that allows for an appeal of that decision, so, I have confidence the judicial system will handle this appropriately,” said Dunbar.

Walker could end up hearing as many as seven cases involving the election.

Walker finished first in his undergraduate class and third in his law school at the University of Florida.

He has been on the Federal bench since 2012.

A federal court in Tallahassee has adjourned without ruling weather spoiled absentee ballot’s should have an opportunity to be cured.

Judge Mark Walker asked for specific numbers on how many ballots could potentially be counted.

Through repeated questioning he indicated he felt the deadlines in place we’re arbitrary.

Democratic Strategist Steve Schale says having ballots rejected for mismatched signatures is a problem that can disenfranchise voters from all walks of life.

“I mean Patrick Murphy who ran for the U.S. Senate last year as a Democrat, his was thrown out. Ron DeSantis’ ballot was thrown out in 2016,” said Schale.

A study published by the ACLU found younger voters made up 30% of rejected mail ballots and minority voters were more than 2 1/2 times more likely to have their mail ballot rejected than white voters.

This year only about 0.75% of mail ballots were rejected.

It’s down from a full percent in previous years, but still counts for an estimated 20,000 votes.

Senator Bill Nelson currently trails Governor Rick Scott by 12,500 votes.

Its not clear exactly how big of an impact mail ballots rejected for mismatched signatures could make if the judge rules they should be accepted.

Democrats argue the lack of a statewide uniform standard for determining if a signature matches, violates the Equal Protection Clause.

Republicans say its a reasonable way to ensure a ballot belongs to the voter casting it.

“That’s the only line of defense that elections officials have to make sure that person who is registered to vote is the one actually casting the ballot,” said Eric Eggers, the author of, ‘Fraud’ which looks at threats to elections.

Leon County Elections Supervisor Mark Earley testified in the case.

He says without signature matching it opens to door for fraud.

“I don’t want a warehouse of people marking ballots that aren’t the voters and then sending them into us and us have to count those,” said Earley. “That would be a bad thing for democracy.”

Another issue in the case is the fact that voters who turn in mail ballots on Election Day have no means to cure their ballot if a signature doesn’t match.

A ruling and whether to extend the time to cure the ballots could come as early as Thursday.

On November 20th the State Elections Canvassing Commission is required by law to certify the election results.

Governor Rick Scott is a member of the board, and unlike the recount of 2000, he has so far not recused himself from certifying the election results.

November 26, 2000 was a tense Sunday at the state Capitol.

The recount had been under way for more than two weeks, with poll workers looking at tens of thousands of ballots by hand.

By early evening, the then questionable vote totals were certified, including previous totals from Palm Beach, which failed to finish the recount.

“I hereby declare George W. Bush the winner of Flordia’s twenty five electoral votes,” said then Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris.

Mac Stipanovich was a key consultant to Harris.

“The goal was to bring the election in for a landing. To get it over with, to be done,” said Mac Stipanovich.

If current vote totals hold, the U-S Senate and Agriculture Commissioner’s races will be hand recounted by hand beginning Thursday.

That means any ballot kicked out by a machine will be examined to see if the voters intent is clear.

The totals are due back on Sunday.

18 years ago, then Governor Jeb Bush, whose brother George was at the center of the disputed Presidential vote, chose to recuse himself from the commission that would certify the final vote.

“Jeb’s just didn’t want to add that bit of controversy to what was already a conflagration of controversy,” said Stipanovich.

Rick Scott has so far chosen not to step down, prompting a law suit from Common Cause and the League of Women Voters.

The canvassing board meets at 9AM next Tuesday at the State Capitol.

Once the election is certified, it opens a ten day window for candidates to challenge the results in court.

A frenzy of lawsuits from Republicans and Democrats have been filed since election night and they show no sign of slowing down.

Political experts say while some are frivolous, others could succeed.

GOP strategist Mac Stipanovich advised Republicans through the 2000 election.

He says the lawsuits from both parties since the election follow a basic principle.

“If you’re ahead you think there’s been plenty of votes counted. If you’re behind, you think there should be a lot more votes counted,” said Stipanovich.

Following that logic, a suit filed by Governor Rick Scott, aims to disqualify votes counted after the noon reporting deadline Saturday.

A similar suit was filed by Ag Commissioner candidate Matt Caldwell that alleges mail ballots received after Election Day were counted and should be thrown out.

Elections Supervisors say the allegations of fraud are irresponsible.

“Going down the ‘Trumpian’ road and throwing charges against the wall and seeing which ones stick, does not serve our nation and does not serve the citizens of Florida well at all,” said former Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho.

Democrats want a Federal Court to rule against Florida’s signature matching requirement for mail ballots.

The case will be heard Wednesday.

The suit cites a recent ACLU report that found Democrats are more likely to have their ballots disqualified because of mismatched signatures than Republicans.

Democrats argue there is no statewide standard for determining whether a signature matches or not.

It could succeed based on previous court rulings made during the 2000 election.

“Judges give the benefit of the doubt to the voter and they don’t penalize them for errors that don’t go to the heart of them exercising their right to vote,” said Stipanovich.

Another lawsuit filed by Democrats aims to count mail ballots postmarked before Election Day, but received by supervisors past the deadline.

Republicans say state law is clear.

“Obviously when the law specifically says at 7 PM on Election Day that seems like a firm cut off,” said Chairman of the Leon County Republican Party Evan Power.

Democrats have also sued to remove the Governor from the Elections Canvasing Commission, which will certify final results.

As the recount for three statewide races enters day three we spoke with representatives from both parties and elections supervisors to try and dispel some of the rumors flying from both sides of the isle.

We’ll start with the claim that tens of thousands of ballots mysteriously appeared after election day.

The rumor was perpetrated by Governor Rick Scott, but elections experts says it’s unfounded.

“These ballots were all delivered properly to the Supervisor of Elections office prior to the 7 pm deadline,” said Fomer Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho.

Some on the left have argued mail ballots undelivered by a post office in Miami-Dade should be counted.

Once again elections supervisors say that’s not the way it works.

“There are any number of ballots that are subject to being voted by mail that don’t get received by the supervisor in time under state law and are not counted,” said President of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, Ron Labasky.

Then there’s the 20 or so invalid ballots in Broward county that were counted after being mixed in with more than 100 legitimate ones.

Republicans including the Attorney General say it suggests fraud, but supervisors say it was a mistake, not malice.

“Human error is a much better reason for a lot of the problems that we’re seeing,” said Sancho.

Two voting rights groups have called on Governor Rick Scott to recuse himself from the elections canvassing commission, which will certify the results, because of his personal involvement in the election, which includes at least 5 lawsuits to date.

Common Cause filed a lawsuit in Federal Court demanding Rick Scott be removed from the Elections Canvasing Commission Monday afternoon after their calls for him to recuse himself went unanswered.

One thing both Republicans and Democrats agree on, is that throughout this election, there are plenty of lessons to be learned.

“Elections aren’t normally this close so there’s a lot of things to look at to tighten up the election law and perhaps make it better,” said Evan Power, Chair of the Republican Party of Leon County.

According to Democratic strategist Steve Schale the fixes revolve around vote by mail.

“Absentee ballot standardization, mail dates for absentee ballots,” said Schale.

Many of those issues will have to be addressed by the courts, the first of which will be heard Wednesday.

While World War II, Vietnam and Korea are largely confined to the history books for many Americans, aging veterans of each of those wars are still with us.

The Florida Health Care Association, which represents assisted living facilities and nursing homes in the state held a special ceremony for about 20 veterans living under their members care Monday morning.

The event was organized with help from the Florida Veterans Foundation.

“We have many men and women working and residing in our member centers who served in the United States armed forces. Today and everyday FHCA is proud to honor these brave veterans for their service to our country and the scarifies they made for our freedom,” said FHCA Executive Director Emmett Reed.

Veterans honored at the ceremony were served a hot breakfast and presented with a medal from FHCA to thank them for their service.

The State of the Florida has officially ordered machine recounts in the US Senate, Governor’s, Commissioner of agriculture and three Legislative races.

By 2:30 PM the recount was underway in Leon County.

Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Andrew Gillum rescinded his Tuesday night concession Saturday afternoon.

“I am replacing my words of concession with an uncompromised and unapologetic call that we count every single vote,” said Gillum.

Gillum trails his opponent Ron DeSantis by the largest margin in all of the races being recounted.

Ryan Tyson with the Associated Industries of Florida says he doesn’t expect any outcomes to be changed.

“I’ve watched these machine recounts for years in Florida,” said Tyson. “Since we got the optical scan machines there really is very little change that happens.”

DeSantis announced in a YouTube video that he is already organizing a transition team.

“Those results are clear and unambiguous just as they were on Election Night and I am honored by the trust that Floridians have placed in me to serve as your next Governor,” said DeSantis.

The recount is just the beginning of what will be a long and fluid process.

Democratic Strategist Steve Schale says some aspects of the election will have to be decided by courts, but he condemned conspiracy theory rhetoric from both sides.

“If we start throwing around crazy ideas all we do is risk the validity of this election,” said Schale.

The machine recount must be completed by Thursday at 3 pm.

If any races fall below a quarter percent margin a hand recount will be triggered.

The results of which must be submitted within three days and officially certified by November 20th.

Ballots are still being tabulated and the margins for 6 Florida races are still within recount range.

The situation is being complicated by lawsuits from both parties.

Across the state canvasing boards like this one are scrambling to finish counting and report overseas and provisional ballots.

In two counties, Broward and Palm Beach, there are still outstanding early votes and mail ballots.

Democratic Strategist Steve Schale chalks it up to incompetence.

“The way the Broward office has run has been a little sloppy. That doesn’t mean it’s being run nefariously,” said Schale.

But Thursday night Governor Rick Scott fired the first shots in what has become a partisan finger pointing battle.

“No rag-tag group of liberal activists or lawyers from DC will be allowed to steal this election,” said Scott.

Scott is suing Broward and Palm Beach counties in order to gain access to how many ballots remain to be counted.

Scott also called on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate possible voter fraud.

FDLE says it is not currently investigating voter fraud but have offered assistance to the Department of State in the case any credible allegations are raised.

Former Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho says Scott’s call for an investigation is purely political.

“The partisans are out of control. When people are ahead they want to stop the process and then when they’re behind they want to open the process,” said Sancho.

Democrats are hoping to extend the reporting deadline for election results set for noon Saturday.

They’ve filed a Federal Lawsuit against the state.

Regardless of the decision a statewide recount is almost a guarantee.

Federal Judge Robert Hinkle asked the state to respond to Democrats’ lawsuit by Saturday morning.

The judge could order a temporary ruling before the noon deadline.

A hearing has been set for 1PM Wednesday afternoon.

The Florida Secretary of State is telling election officials to prepare for a statewide recount.

Six races are within the half percentage margin to trigger an automatic machine recount.

The Governor’s race, US Senate, Commissioner of Agriculture, a state senate seat and two state house races all fall within the half percent margin.

An unknown number of outstanding early voting and vote by mail ballots have yet to be counted in Broward and Palm Beach Counties.

If the margins hold through 12 PM Saturday, Elections Supervisors will begin the statewide machine recount process.

“I just recommend that people are patient and trust your supervisors and their staffs are doing their job as best they can,” said Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley.

The machine recount would end at 3 PM November 15th.

If any races are within a quarter percentage point, a hand recount will then be ordered.

If a hand recount is triggered, it would have to be completed by November 18th and results finalized by November 20th.

Political experts are hopeful that any recount, won’t be a repeat of the 2000 Presidential election.

“I’m hoping we learned from that lesson and that we wont have that,” said FSU Political Science Professor, Dr. Carol Weissert. ” I know we have a better voting system. We have better ways of counting now than we had then.”

However, the state is entering uncharted waters.

“This will be the first real statewide recount if we get that far that’s ever occurred,” said Florida State Association of Elections Supervisors President Ron Labasky.

Like Senator Bill Nelson, Andrew Gillum has lawyered up, hiring Barry Richard, who represented President George W. Bush in the 2000 recount.

“Everyone has the right to have their vote counted fairly and accurately and that’s what we’re involved in here,” said Richard.

After the dust clears and results are certified, candidates have ten days to contest the election in court.

It’s a very possible scenario in such tight races with such high stakes.

A lawyer for the League of Women voters told Supreme Court Justices that the process for picking three replacement for the judges was “tainted” by political considerations.

The League wants the process stopped until a new Governor is allowed input.

Controversial decisions from the state Supreme are usually decided by at 4-3 margin, but three justices usually on the majority are being forced to retire January 8th.

59 possible replacements are being interviewed, but since all nine people doing the interviewing were appointed by Governor Rick Scott, the League of Women voters calls the it, “The result of a tainted process”.

The League wants more applications, accepted, arguing the current applicants were ideologically vetted.

“They have members who want to apply, but wouldn’t apply when it looked like Governor Scott was making it,” said Attorney John Mills representing the League.

The lawyer for the nominating commission says there is nothing for the court to decide.

“I think this is much to do about nothing. I’m still struggling to find out what we did wrong,” said the Commission’s attorney, Raoul Cantero.

One retiring justice was skeptical.

“You’re suggesting that we should allow, just a couple of politicians, to get together and they on their own can decide what they want to do, no matter what the Constitution says,” asked Justice Fred Lewis.

“I’m not suggesting that at all,” Cantero replied.

While the arguments were deep in the woods of public policy and the constitution this case could decide the ideological bent of the court for decades to come.

“And what they want to have is a six one court,” said Mills. “Ideologically tilted when we have an electorate that is about as close to fifty-fifty as you can imagine. That’s wrong.”

We asked nominating chair Jason Under about the allegations.

“I have no comment, but it was an interesting argument,” said Unger.

Under current law, the next Governor must select nominees for the court from a list provided by the commission appointed by Rick Scott.

Ironically, because voters changed the rules for retiring justices when they approved Amendment 6, a case like this one will never go before the court again.