News · Politics
Democratic candidate sues Miami-Dade elections supervisor over the District 27 recount
Eliott Rodríguez wants Alina García removed from the count that will decide the seat he is contesting against Cuban-American congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, with a little over a thousand votes between them.
Democratic congressional candidate Eliott Rodríguez filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against Alina García, the Miami-Dade supervisor of elections, to keep her from taking part in canvassing board decisions on the recount in Florida's District 27. The suit alleges bias and a conflict of interest, and also names Republican congresswoman María Elvira Salazar.
The 16-page filing, lodged with the federal court for the Southern District of Florida, raises possible violations of the due process guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The campaign challenges remarks García made on election night: according to NBC News, she told the Miami Herald that "Maria Elvira is the winner, with or without a recount". The lawyers also allege that Robert Fernández, the attorney representing Salazar in the recount, is the supervisor's son-in-law, and that her daughter Alyn Fernández appeared before the canvassing board as the Republican's representative. These are allegations and not yet a judicial finding.
Preliminary Associated Press results, with about 99% of the vote counted, gave Salazar 124,528 votes, or 50.22%, against 123,438 for Rodríguez, or 49.78%: a gap of 1,090 votes, with no confirmed winner, according to Periódico Cubano. NBC News put the congresswoman's lead at 1,103 votes, or 0.44 percentage points, based on figures from Thursday evening.
Florida law requires an automatic recount when the margin is no greater than half a percentage point, and allows a manual review of certain ballots if it falls to 0.25 points or less. The automatic recount must be completed by November 12, and state certification is scheduled for the 17th.
García refused to step aside after the Democratic campaign formally asked her to do so in a letter on Thursday, saying she had been "elected by the people to perform the duties of the Supervisor of Elections". Salazar accused her opponent of behaving like an "election denier" and of turning the process into a "political circus", and called for officials to be left to do their work.
Sources: Periódico Cubano · NBC News · 14ymedio
Data updated: 2026-11-07T04:15:00.000Z