McBride's lead over Reno in Florida dwindling

Bill McBride

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- New votes being counted in the Florida governor's race show Bill McBride's lead over Janet Reno in the Democratic primary has decreased, both campaigns said Sunday.

Because of voting-related problems including faulty voting machines, Reno's campaign had asked election officials in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to re-examine ballots cast there, said Reno spokeswoman Nicole Harburger.

On Sunday, both campaigns learned the recount in Miami-Dade had netted Reno an additional 2,511 votes. That brought McBride's statewide lead down to 5,685 votes from 8,196, which was based on unofficial returns released Friday.

Harburger stressed that even the new numbers were unofficial until Tuesday, when election results from all of Florida's 67 counties become certified and final.

MORE STORIES Poor training, last-minute glitches in Miami-Dade election fiasco

She added the Reno campaign is still awaiting the rest of the results from Miami-Dade and all the results from Broward.

"We are concerned that Broward is not moving quickly," she said. "They haven't given any indications about what they're doing."

Reno, the former U.S. attorney general, had sought a statewide manual recount of ballots cast last Tuesday because of the widespread voting problems and small margin of victory for McBride, a Tampa attorney. State elections officials, however, decided not to grant her request because the margin was not small enough to trigger a manual recount under state election laws revamped after Florida's controversial 2000 election.

Janet Reno

McBride spokesman Alan Stonecipher said he does not believe Reno will capture many more votes.

"If there's anything there, it's dozens of votes, not hundreds, and certainly not thousands," he said. "There is nothing left anywhere in the state that could possibly change the outcome."

Stonecipher said the campaign is looking forward to Tuesday, when "we'll be able to unite and go forward to the common goal of beating Jeb Bush in November."

Polls have shown Bush, the president's brother, far ahead of either Democratic candidate in head-to-head matchups.