Nine days after Florida’s Election Day, the deadline for machine recounts of three statewide races came and went Thursday, but Andrew Gillum refused to concede and urged vote counting to continue even as his margin behind Ron DeSantis was slimmed by just one vote.

“A vote denied is justice denied — the State of Florida must count every legally cast vote,” Gillum said in a statement as the machine recount was completed in all but a few counties. “As today’s unofficial reports and recent court proceedings make clear, there are tens of thousands of votes that have yet to be counted. We plan to do all we can to ensure that every voice is heard in this process.’’

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, calling the state a “laughingstock,’’ refused to suspend deadlines in the races for U.S. Senate, governor and agriculture commissioner of 3 p.m. Thursday for machine recounts and noon Sunday for hand recounts.

Gillum had trailed Republican Ron DeSantis by 33,684 votes before the recount began, and while both candidates lost votes in the recount, the margin on Thursday was trimmed by one vote to 33,683.