Florida election officials are racing towards a deadline to finish a recount of ballots in close races for the US Senate and governor's seat, as a federal judge expressed frustration with an election system he called "the laughing stock of the world".
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US District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee, Florida, cleared the way to include ballots from as many as 5000 people across the state who submitted ballots by mail that were rejected by election officials. A Georgia federal judge issued a similar ruling as that state worked to resolve a close governor's race.
In Florida, the recount of close races from the November 6 elections and attendant legal disputes over the validity of votes have stirred memories of the 2000 US presidential election, when the US Supreme Court stopped an ongoing recount in the state and sent George W. Bush to the White House.
Walker grew testy during a series of Thursday hearings about lawsuits over the recounts, voicing frustration about how to handle uneven progress in different counties and also questioning the Florida legislature's response to historic election problems.
"We have been the laughing stock of the world election after election," Walker said. "But we've still chosen not to fix this."
He rejected a request by incumbent US Senator Bill Nelson and the Democratic Party to extend Thursday's 3pm local time deadline to report results of the first-round electronic recount.
Separately, a federal judge in Georgia ordered state election officials to count some previously rejected ballots in that state's governor's race, where ballots are still being tallied but Republican former Secretary of State Brian Kemp has declared victory over Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Initial counts after the elections showed Florida's outgoing governor, Republican Rick Scott, leading in his bid to unseat Nelson. Republican Ron DeSantis led Democrat Andrew Gillum in the governor's race.
In both races the margins of victory were below the 0.5 percentage point threshold at which state law requires a recount of ballots. If the margin is below 0.25 per cent by the end of the electronic recount, a second round of recounting by hand will follow.
It was not clear that additional ballots allowed in either Florida or Georgia would tip the races in question.
Current official tallies from Florida show Scott leading Nelson by 50.07 per cent of the vote to 49.92, with DeSantis on 49.59 per cent to Gillum's 49.18 per cent.
Georgia's results show Kemp leading Abrams 50.23 per cent to 48.83 per cent. The election was a three-way race that included a Libertarian candidate who drew close to 1 per cent of the vote, and if Kemp's total ended up dipping below 50 per cent, he and Abrams would proceed to a runoff next month.
Australian Associated Press
