ORLANDO, Fla. — Floridians have elected Republican Ron DeSantis as their next governor.

The news was delivered by Democratic Andrew Gillum during a concession speech hours after polls closed.

11:28 p.m.

Republican incumbent Jimmy Patronis is elected Florida's next chief financial officer, defeating Democrat Jeremy Ring.

11 p.m.

With a little more than 99 percent of precincts reporting, Ron DeSantis led Andrew Gillum by just 77,000 votes — a spread that Gillum couldn't overcome.

He delivered a concession speech in Tallahassee, where he is mayor.

"Earlier this evening I called Mr. Ron DeSantis and congratulated him on what we expect will be the next governor of the great state of Florida," Gillum said.

DeSantis is backed by President Donald Trump, who held several rallies in Florida to support is election campaign.

The U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson and current Florida Gov. Rick Scott is still undecided.

10:30 p.m.

Republicans will keep control of the U.S. Senate, CNN reports.

Meanwhile, the races for governor and Florida's U.S. Senate seat were still undecided.

9:37 p.m.

Republican Ashley Moody will be Florida's next attorney general. Shes's a former federal prosecutor and judge.

Moody beat Sean Shaw, the son of former Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander Shaw.

9:12 p.m.

Florida voters have approved Amendment 4, which restores voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences (but not felons convicted of murder or sex crimes).

Felons in most other states had this right.

The measure restores voting rights to 1.5 million Floridians.

9 p.m.

Florida voters have approved two constitutional amendments so far: one limits any future casinos outside of Indian reservations, another bans officials from taking paid lobbying jobs within six years after they've left a public office.

Orange County has a new sheriff in former Orlando Police Chief John Mina. He replaces Jerry Demings, who was elected Orange County mayor earlier this year.

8:29 p.m.

Donna Shalala has won a U.S. House in Florida's 27th District, defeating Republican Maria Elvira Salazar and flipping the district Democratic for the first time in decades.

The former Cabinet secretary under President Bill Clinton is 77 years old.

8:05 p.m.

Voters have elected South Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to an eighth term in Florida's 23rd District. She's an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. She recently was the target of a series of packages containing crude pipe bombs were mailed to prominent critics of Trump.

GOP Rep. Neal Dunn has been re-elected to his district, which includes parts of Marion County and extends all the way to the Panhandle.

7:55 p.m.

Republican Rep. Michael Waltz has won Ron DeSantis' old District 6, which includes Flagler and Volusia counties.

7:36 p.m.

Democratic Reps. Darren Soto and Stephanie Murphy have been re-elected.

Soto's district covers parts of Kissimmee, St. Cloud and Winter Haven in Osceola and Polk counties. Murphy's 7th District includes part of Orange County.

7:14 p.m.

Three longtime Republican U.S. congressmen whose districts include parts of Central Florida, have won re-election.

Daniel Webster, whose Florida district includes parts of The Villages, will serve a fifth term. Ted Yoho will serve a fourth term in Florida's 3rd District, which includes parts of Gainesville and Ocala. And Bill Posey has been elected to a sixth term; his district includes the cities of Melbourne and Vero Beach.

GOP 

7 p.m.

Polls have closed in the Eastern time zone. A section of the Florida Panhandle is in Central time, including Pensacola.

Most Central Florida county Supervisors of Elections are reporting record turnout for a midterm election.

Meanwhile, a severe storm passed over Tallahassee, forcing the evacuation of the media tent at Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum's election night party. He's running for governor against Ron DeSantis.

6:25 p.m.

Remember that if you're in line at your precinct when polls close at 7 p.m., election workers must allow you to vote. So stay in line. Here are some other questions and answers about Election Day and voting.

5:22 p.m.

Some unofficial turnout numbers for Central Florida so far, based on numbers available by the county elections offices:

BREVARD COUNTY as of 5 p.m.

  • Total Ballots Cast: 268,462
  • Turnout: 63.53 percent

FLAGLER COUNTY as of 5 p.m.

  • Total Ballots Cast: 51,128
  • Turnout: 61.89 percent

ORANGE COUNTY as of 5 p.m.

  • Total Ballots Cast: 451,295
  • Turnout: 56.53 percent

SUMTER COUNTY of 5 p.m.

  • Total ballots cast: 73,691
  • Turnout: 76.37 percent

2:40 p.m.: 

1 p.m.: 

Gov. Rick Scott on Twitter: Power has been restored to every family and business in the Panhandle who lost power and are able to receive it. This is great news for our communities impacted by Hurricane Michael. Thank you to the more than 19,000 utility workers who helped make this restoration possible!

11:15 a.m.:

A 55-year-old Melbourne man was arrested Monday night after Brevard County deputies say he called in a bomb threat to the county Supervisor of Elections Office because he was mad at all of the political candidates' unsolicited calls.

Daniel Chen has been charged with making a false bomb report and is being held at the Brevard County Jail on $15,000 bond, deputies say.

Brevard deputies said that the Supervisor of Elections Office called them Monday afternoon after it got a phone threat. The caller, identified by deputies as Chen, threatened to "blow up" the office because he was getting a lot of unsolicited calls from candidates.

Chen also provided his name and number, deputies say. He was taken into custody without incident.

Earlier:

Early voting numbers show that Democrats have a slide lead right now.

Pre-election data shows that Democrat voters outnumber Republican voters by a little over 24,000 votes and this is the first time that's been the case in 14 years. 

This time around, voters have a lot to decide on. Florida's ballot has one of the longest lists of proposed constitutional changes in decades. 

There are 12 constitutional amendments on this year’s ballot, the most since 1998.

And in some cases, measures have been grouped together, so voters will have to choose to approve or reject unrelated proposals that have been linked in one amendment. 

For instance Admendment 9, which lumps together a ban on both vaping indoors and offshore oil and gas drilling. 

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