Miami, Florida: Salazar Leads Rodriguez by 1,090 Votes as Federal Lawsuit Challenges District 27 Recount Oversight

The race for Florida's 27th Congressional District is headed to a recount, and the fight over who runs that recount is now in federal court.

Democratic candidate Eliott Rodriguez filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia, alleging bias after she declined to step aside from the county canvassing board that oversees the count. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, the Republican incumbent, is also named in the lawsuit, which asks the court to bar Garcia from acting as a deciding member of the board for District 27.

A lead of 1,090 votes

The Miami-Dade canvassing board finished its count on Friday morning with Salazar ahead by 1,090 votes, down from 1,325 on election night. The county results page, updated at 2:08 p.m. on Friday, showed Salazar with 124,528 votes and Rodriguez with 123,438, a gap of 1,090 out of 247,966 votes, or 0.44 percent.

Florida law requires a machine recount when the margin is one half of one percent or less. Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd orders recounts in federal races, and the recount in District 27 could start as early as Monday or Tuesday.

Salazar won the Miami seat by 20 points two years ago. This time she declared victory on election night in Key Biscayne. The district runs from Little Havana to Cutler Bay and west into Kendall, and about 70 percent of its voters are Latino.

The recusal fight

Rodriguez's campaign demanded on Thursday that Garcia recuse herself. In a letter signed by campaign attorney Jason B. Blank, the campaign pointed to two issues. The Miami Herald quoted Garcia at Salazar's election night party saying, "Maria Elvira is the winner, with or without a recount." The campaign also says the attorney representing Salazar in the recount, Robert Fernandez, is Garcia's son-in-law, and asked the elections office to confirm the relationship.

"A candidate can declare victory. An election official responsible for the canvass should know better," Blank wrote.

Garcia declined to step aside. On Friday the campaign went to federal court. "Voters deserve impartiality in how their votes are counted, and that's why the decision was made to go to federal court," said JC Planas, an attorney for the Rodriguez campaign.

Garcia's office has called the matter partisan and pointed to the state statute. Salazar's campaign and Fernandez call the process transparent and the lawsuit baseless. The county's general counsel said it is unlikely the result will be overturned at this margin.

What happens next

The recount will go ahead while the lawsuit is pending, unless a judge orders otherwise. If the machine recount leaves the margin at one quarter of one percent or less, state law provides for a manual recount of the ballots the machines flagged. Rodriguez has not conceded, and Salazar is holding her election night claim to the seat. The judge's first decision on Garcia's role could come before the recount starts.