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Florida's 67 counties had been given until midday (1700 GMT) on Saturday to submit unofficial totals. State law triggers a machine recount if the difference in a race is within 0.5 percent.
The Florida secretary of state, Ken Detzner, issued the order after unofficial results in both races fell within the margin. The unofficial results show that Republican Ron DeSantis led Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by 0.41 percentage points. In the Senate race, Republican Rick Scott's lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson is only 0.14 percentage points.
Once machine recounts are completed, if the difference in the races are at 0.25 percentage points or below, a hand recount will be ordered, AP reported, citing Florida Department of State spokeswoman Sarah Revell.
The new midterms development returns Florida to the center of a major political firestorm, 18 years after an infamous presidential recount left control of the White House undecided for over a month.
Election officials in Florida's counties must finish machine recounts by 3 p.m. on Thursday.
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