A Florida Republican Leads by Just 1,090 Votes. A Judge Rejected Her Rival’s Bid to Oust the Recount Chief.

Almost a week after Election Day, one of the closest House races in the country is still open. In Miami, Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar leads Democrat Eliott Rodriguez by 1,090 votes out of nearly 248,000 cast.

That is close enough that Florida law forces a do-over. Since Monday morning, election workers in Doral have been feeding every ballot in Florida’s 27th Congressional District back through the counting machines, and the count ran on through the night.

The numbers

The state’s official results page, Florida Election Watch, shows Salazar with 124,528 votes and Rodriguez with 123,438. That is 50.22% to 49.78%, a gap of 0.44 percentage points.

Florida requires a machine recount whenever a race is decided by half a percentage point or less. The secretary of state ordered one Saturday. The new totals are due by 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12. If the gap shrinks to a quarter of a point or less, the law then calls for a hand review of the ballots the machines couldn’t read clearly, such as ones with no vote or too many votes marked in this race.

Salazar claimed victory on election night. The Associated Press has not called the race.

The fight over who runs the count

Before the machines started, Rodriguez went to federal court. His campaign sued Friday to keep Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia, a Republican, off the recount, accusing her of bias toward Salazar and alleging “suspicious, questionable and potentially unlawful activity involving the processing of ballots” in the race.

His complaint pointed to two things. “Garcia is a former Republican House member who recently stated that ‘Maria Elvira is the winner, with or without a recount,’ despite our race remaining within range of an automatic recount under Florida law,” Rodriguez said. He also said Garcia’s son-in-law is working as Salazar’s lawyer in the recount.

Minutes before the recount began Monday, U.S. District Judge David S. Leibowitz said no, WSVN 7News reported. The judge noted that Garcia doesn’t decide anything alone. She sits on the county canvassing board with two state court judges, so she cannot single-handedly decide whether a vote counts. He called it possible but improbable that the recount would really change anything.

What Rodriguez wants now

Rodriguez says he isn’t trying to overturn anything. “Whatever the final outcome, I will respect the will of the voters,” he said in a Sunday statement, the Miami Herald reported. “A recount is not a denial of an election result or a challenge to democracy.”

He is also asking the elections department for a full list of overseas voters in the district who requested ballots, including military voters, showing whether each ballot was sent, returned, counted, rejected or is still pending.

Why it matters

Every House seat counts as Republicans set up for the next two years in Washington. Salazar, a former TV journalist, has held this heavily Hispanic seat covering parts of Miami and Coral Gables since 2021.

Florida settled several other close races without a recount. Republican Ryan Elijah won the 7th District by 1,631 votes, just outside the recount line. Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart won the 26th by 1,704 votes. “The remaining overseas ballots that may come in will not mathematically change the outcome,” Elijah said.

What happens next

The machine recount totals are due Thursday afternoon. If Salazar’s lead holds above a quarter of a point, that is the end of the counting. If it narrows further, the hand review begins.