"It's impossible," said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher in response to CNN asking if officials would be able to finish the full recount on time.
A countywide recount is officially underway in Palm Beach County and Susan Bucher the Supervisor of Elections believes they are unable to meet the deadline of Nov. 15.
“We’ve asked the secretary if there was any consideration to extend the deadline and he said no,” said Bucher.
Earlier in the day on Saturday, Bucher was in a county courtroom where a judge questioned the process used to count provisional ballots.
But at the tabulation center in Riviera Beach the canvassing board sits in a small room comparing each original to a duplicate, part of an unknown number of ballots in question.
"The goal is that every vote should be counted,” said state attorney Dave Aronberg.
Before the official recount began, the canvassing board voted to count each race one at a time starting with the U.S. senate then focusing on governor and agriculture commissioner.
“They should be able to do more than one race at a time,” said Aronberg.
However, Bucher said they don't have the technology to do so. And it's something that she's brought to state officials attention for the past 10 years.
Yet, Aronberg said a provision in a state statute reads if a county doesn't meet the deadline given then all of the votes can be thrown out.
“And I think that would just be unconstitutional because I don’t know how you penalize the voters for delays in the process,” said Aronberg.
Meanwhile representatives from both parties sit and watch and shake their heads at how they got here.
“You know, a peaceful group of folks from both sides of the aisle, just monitoring and just making sure votes are counted and things are done the right way and that’s how things should be done in Palm Beach County,” said Aronberg.
You can count on NewsChannel 5 to provide any updates on the recount process as they become available.
