Byron Donalds leads Florida’s unofficial count for governor after AP call and David Jolly’s concession; state certification is listed for Nov. 17

Republican Byron Donalds and running mate Bryan Avila lead Florida’s unofficial count for governor with 4,132,334 votes, or 50.02%, as the state’s Florida Election Watch page showed them when SignalData opened it at 4:01 p.m. Wednesday. Democrat David Jolly and running mate Gwen Graham have 4,024,639 votes, or 48.71%. The page’s total is 8,261,740.¹

The Associated Press called the race for Donalds on Tuesday night. Bay News 9 stamped the AP’s race call 9:09 p.m. ET Nov. 3.² Jolly conceded at a Tampa watch party Tuesday night and said he had spoken with Donalds, WFLA reported in a story posted at 11:28 p.m. “We have lost this election tonight, but we haven’t lost the fight,” Jolly said.³

Every ticket on the state’s page

Alphabetically by last name, with the state’s party codes (DEM Democratic, LPF Libertarian, NPA no party affiliation, REP Republican, WRI write-in):¹

• Dean Ocean Abrams and Joe Van Vactor: NPA, 12,535 votes, 0.15%
• Kathy Anderson and Daniel Nokovich: WRI, 0 votes, 0%
• Charles Burkett and Ruben A. Coto: NPA, 15,239 votes, 0.18%
• Jeffrey Peter “Dr. Jeff” Datto and Juan Santana: NPA, 8,312 votes, 0.1%
• Moliere “Moe” Dimanche and Benjiman Rojas: NPA, 7,591 votes, 0.09%
• Byron Donalds and Bryan Avila: REP, 4,132,334 votes, 50.02%
• Scott Eckhard Jewett and Nicole Skelly: LPF, 37,889 votes, 0.46%
• David Jolly and Gwen Graham: DEM, 4,024,639 votes, 48.71%
• Erik Morris and LeRoy Alaways: WRI, 0 votes, 0%
• Frank J. Russo and Rachel Rodriguez: NPA, 23,201 votes, 0.28%

Margin and counties

The margin is 107,695 votes, or 1.3% of the page’s total, by SignalData’s calculation.¹ State law requires a recount to be ordered when unofficial returns show a candidate defeated by one-half of a percent or less of the votes cast, unless that candidate declines in writing.⁴ On the current total, that is 41,308 votes or fewer, by SignalData’s calculation. A manual recount of overvotes and undervotes follows at one-quarter of a percent or less on the second set of unofficial returns, with listed exceptions.⁵

By SignalData’s count of the state’s county table, opened about 4 p.m., the Donalds-Avila ticket had the most votes in 54 of 67 counties and the Jolly-Graham ticket in 13: Alachua, Broward, Duval, Gadsden, Hillsborough, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Seminole and St. Lucie.⁶ The state’s reporting page showed 100% of precincts reporting in every county and turnout of 8,335,497, or 60.82% of 13,704,495 eligible active registered voters.⁷

What happens next

The Division of Elections’ 2026 timeline lists these steps:⁸

• Nov. 5, 5 p.m. local time: deadline for provisional ballot proof and mail ballot cures.
• Nov. 7, noon: county unofficial returns due; the recount test applies to these.
• Nov. 12, 3 p.m.: second returns due if a machine recount is triggered.
• Nov. 16, noon: county official returns due.
• Nov. 17, 8 a.m.: the Elections Canvassing Commission certifies official returns.⁹

Under the Florida Constitution, the four-year term starts Jan. 5, 2027, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January.¹⁰

What the records do not show

• The state has not certified a result, and its page names no winner.
• The state’s pages do not say how many provisional or overseas ballots remain.
• The page shows 0 votes for both write-in tickets and does not say whether write-in ballots have been tallied. Miami-Dade’s own results page lists 745 write-in votes.¹¹
• Turnout exceeds votes for governor by 73,757, by SignalData’s calculation. The pages do not explain the difference.
• The state’s county table lists Miami-Dade at 360,000 for Donalds-Avila and 415,100 for Jolly-Graham.⁶ Miami-Dade’s page, last updated at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, showed 360,021 and 415,130.¹¹ AP statewide figures on Fox 13’s page exceed the state’s by the same 21 and 30.¹² The records do not explain the difference, which does not change who leads the county.