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Florida, a battleground for two statewide races, will delay its recount results for another week; ministers in Theresa May’s cabinet quit over her proposed Brexit plan.
The midterms are still going in some states
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- Thousands of Florida voters whose ballots were initially thrown out because their signatures didn’t match the state’s records will get a second chance at having them counted after a federal judge’s ruling — a win for Democrats in the ongoing battle over the state’s recounts. [Vox / Stavros Agorakis]
- Now, Florida voters have until 5 pm Saturday to fix their ballots by providing proof of identity and correcting any signature problems. Gov. Rick Scott, who’s currently slightly ahead of incumbent Bill Nelson in the Senate match, stated his campaign will immediately file an appeal to the ruling, which he called a “baseless decision.” [The Hill / Max Greenwood]
- By the end of the first count, Rep. Ron DeSantis had a 0.41 percent lead over progressive Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in the governor’s race. In the Senate, Scott only held a 0.14 percent margin of victory over Nelson, which translates to a roughly 13,000-vote difference. [Vox Midterms Live Results / Andrew Prokop, Tara Golshan, and Ryan Mark]
- But Nelson’s campaign should not get its hopes up; the average recount from past elections between 2000 and 2015 has moved the margin by 0.02 percent. Nelson needs the margin to move by nearly eight times as much to win the race. [CNN / Harry Enten]
- Florida is not the only state to grapple with election recounts, though. Another court ruling energized both Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp’s gubernatorial campaigns in Georgia Wednesday, handing them each small victories on which ballots may count toward the final tally. Kemp, who formerly served as the Republican secretary of state, again asked for Abrams to concede, claiming an “insurmountable lead” in the race against her. [USA Today / Steve Kiggins and Nicquel Terry Ellis]
- Seven House races are also still waiting to be called. In Utah’s Fourth Congressional District, where incumbent GOP Mia Love trails her opponent by a narrow margin, the representative filed a lawsuit to halt the vote in Salt Lake County until her campaign can challenge whether signatures on ballot envelopes match those on file. [Washington Post / Felicia Sonmez]
- All the ongoing lawsuits and recounts will delay the final congressional tally for at least another week. As it holds, Democrats have picked up at least 35 seats in the House for a 230-member majority, while the GOP has a 51-47 lead in the Senate. [NYT / Allison McCann and Karen Yourish]
Two UK cabinet members quit after Brexit plan
- Two ministers have resigned from British Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet, throwing her government into chaos and threatening the future of a proposed Brexit agreement. [Vox / Jen Kirby]
- Dominic Raab, May’s chief negotiator on withdrawal from the European Union, and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey both exited the government shortly after May announced she had secured cabinet approval for a draft deal. The two sides have until March 29 to ratify an agreement by both parliaments, after which the UK’s membership in the EU will expire, deal or no deal. [NYT / Stephen Castle]
- In the meantime, several EU leaders — among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe — dismissed talk of renegotiating the draft Brexit deal and warned that the UK’s political situation could make a “no deal” verdict more likely. [BBC]
- The fraught Brexit negotiations have trailed a rocky path since the UK’s historic 2016 vote to leave the EU, with the status of Northern Ireland remaining a thorny element. Dozens of lawmakers, many from May’s own Conservative Party, have already rejected other deals that were brought to the negotiating table. [NPR / Colin Dwyer]
Miscellaneous
- Monopoly is directly targeting millennials with a new version featuring tokens like a hashtag and a camera. Naturally, it doesn’t allow you to buy property, and instead encourages you to gain “experience points.” [MarketWatch / Hannah Sparks]
- If you’ve ever wondered (for some reason) what Sour Patch Kids would taste like with milk, you’re in luck: The candy is getting a limited-edition breakfast cereal version this December before a nationwide release next summer. [Food and Wine / Caitlin Petreycik]
- Beyoncé bought out Ivy Park, a gymwear clothing line, from co-founder Philip Green a few weeks after he was publicly accused of sexual and racial harassment of his staff. [Pitchfork / Jazz Monroe]
- Actor Jim Carrey tweeted a protest of Mark Zuckerberg, shortly after a scathing investigation on Facebook was published in the New York Times on Thursday. Carrey’s message, spelled out in binary code, translated to a two-word expletive. [Huffington Post / Lee Moran]
Verbatim
“I never thought Kanye West and Mark Zuckerberg would have so much in common with my Saturday nights at La Sing.” [A fan reacts to a Kanye tweet that shows him and the Facebook CEO singing the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way” at karaoke / People]
Watch this: How Brexit could create a crisis at the Irish border
The open border has helped keep the peace for 20 years. [YouTube / Sam Ellis]
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