JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It's Election Eve and the race is tight. President Barack Obama and former governor Mitt Romney are in a statistical dead heat, meaning there's a good chance of a recount.
"Any race within a half percent has to be recounted," said Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland.
That means each ballot that was cast has to be run back through the counting machines. If the race is closer than that, the process is even more tedious.
"If they're within a quarter of a percent, then you've got to do the machine count. lus every ballot that's got over votes, you've got to look at to see if it was truly an over vote or an under vote," said Holland. That means each ballot has to be inspected, to make sure you chose just one candidate per race.
Holland says recounts can take days. For example, in the primary election, one local race took four days to settle. "And that was a 20% turnout. Now with an 80% turnout, we would probably go almost 24 hours a day. And it would probably take us at least four to five days," he said.
Holland estimates a recount could cost as much as $150,000. It's expensive and time consuming, but should the race be too close to call on Tuesday night, Holland says his office is ready.
