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Broward Finishes Counting Absentee Votes, Recounts Incoming

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BROWARD (CBSMiami) - A day after the election, Broward stood alone as the only county still counting votes.

Election workers manually inserted 12-thousand absentee ballots into counting machines.

"We had a lot of walk-ins here and downtown. It takes time to do the manual processing of those ballots," Broward Elections Supervisor Dr. Brenda Snipes told CBS4's Joan Murray.

According to the Florida Division of Elections, Broward was the only county that hadn't finished with absentee ballots or submitted them to the state.

Snipes said they received an influx of absentee ballots on Election Day.

CLICK HERE To Watch Joan Murray's Report 

The additional votes didn't alter the outcome of any race in Broward, but it did narrow the gap in two close races.

Recounts will be necessary in a county judgeship race and a commission race in Coral Springs.

Broward County Judge Ian Richards was behind his opponent by a mere 1,000 votes on Tuesday night.

"You win, you win," said Richards. "We'll do our best not to create unnecessary litigation."

Charlie Crist's camp filed an emergency legal motion to force Broward to remain open an extra two hours after the polls were scheduled to close; citing those issues and a late start at one polling site.

In the end the judge ruled it was too late in the day to extend the voting hours, which Snipes agreed with.

"Logistically, I think it would have been pretty impossible (to keep them open). At 10 minutes of 7 (p.m.), there would have been no way for the workers to know that we are going to go outside the procedures you have been trained for," said Snipes.

Broward County, Miami-Dade and many other counties in the state still have to have their canvassing boards certify the provisional ballots. Final election results are due to the state Friday.

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