Machine recounts set this week for one Florida congressional race and one state House contest
The election results are final in Florida, with the exception of one congressional race and one state House contest in which recounts will take place this week.
In Florida’s 27th Congressional District in Miami-Dade County, Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia has said a recount in the race between Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Salazar and Democratic candidate Eliot Rodriguez would begin Monday at 10 a.m.
Salazar leads Rodriguez by 1,090 votes, or 0.44% over Rodriguez, 50.22%-49.78%. That’s inside the 0.5% margin that automatically triggers a machine recount.
Garcia, a Republican, is one of three members of the Miami-Dade County canvassing board, which will oversee the recount.
The Rodriguez campaign has filed a federal lawsuit calling on Garcia to recuse herself from the canvassing board, claiming she has several conflicts, including that her son-in-law, Robert Fernandez, represents Salazar in the recount. Garcia has said she will not recuse herself. A hearing related to that legal challenge took place earlier Monday, but a federal judge denied the motion to relieve Garcia, as reported by NBC 6 South Florida.
Meanwhile, a state House race also requires a recount. That’s the contest for the House District 33 seat in Brevard County, where Democratic challenger Daniel R. McDow holds a lead of 289 votes over Republican incumbent Monique Miller. McDow had 36,430 votes and Miller 36,141 votes. That’s a difference of just 0.4%, 50.2%-49.8%. That recount will take place Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Brevard County Election Support Center in Melbourne.
If the machine recounts in either case results in a margin of 0.25% or less, a manual recount would be ordered.
Several other congressional elections in Florida last week were extremely close, but their margins were outside the 0.5% required for a machine recount.
In Florida’s 7th Congressional District, Republican Ryan Elijah defeated Democrat Bale Dalton by apparently just outside the 0.5% margin. The Division of Elections website lists Elijah with 49.71% to Dalton’s 49.21%.
In Florida’s 9th Congressional District, Democratic incumbent Darren Soto defeated Republican Dan Green by 0.52%, 50.26%-49.74%.
In Florida’s 26th Congressional District, Republican incumbent Mario Diaz-Balart defeated Democrat Nicole Larkin by 0.74%, 49.86%-49.12%.
And in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, Republican incumbent Anna Paulina Luna defeated Democrat Leela Gray by 0.8%, 49.48%-48.68%.