well, in FL or the rest of the country?

In general.

Ensconced at the airport now. Question is, will msbelle's pets miss me?

Nora,

I got the buyer's agent to compensate me for delayed closing. It was about half my real expenses, but I took it.

The bank delayed my closing too: first, the loan officer saw a mention of a crack in the inspector's report and demanded that a structural engineer inspect it - at the bank's expense.

Second, the bank apparently wanted a letter from the buyer's landlord - and the landlord was supposed to be out of town for a week.

After I said I wanted $$ for a 2nd (or 3rd) extension, magically, this issue resolved itself in 2 days.

Recount almost always gets different result from original. But usually same person wins. We leave it to states and states screw up, often purposely because a screwed up election system discourages Democratic voters more than Republican voters. Sometimes it happens because state lege is cheap. Being a Federal system is a real weakness for the USA.

What's the assumed margin of error?

Varies by state. If the margin is small enough the loser can get a free recount. "Small enough" is define by state. For that matter I'm 100% sure every state has this.

I guess I'm not asking right. How "off" is reasonable, say, for that Fl recount? Are we ever assuming the votes get counted accurately? If not, where could I find out a state by state margin of error, then, if that's how it's broken down? I have no idea what's reasonable and what's not, and I'd like to know.

FL has an automatic recount if there is a .5% vote difference - at least for President. Which seems reasonable to me.

FL does has a vote counting problem though (and likely true in other states as well). Since the error was not in West's favor, I don't see that as a problem.

Here's some discussion, ita. [link] According to that article, thirteen states use .5% as the trigger for a recount.